Skip to main content
Support
Article

Pressure intensifies for those sentenced to prison terms in the mensalão scandal

Paulo Sotero

As the Brazil protest continue, the pressure mounts to convict those sentenced during the mensalão trials

Brazil Institute, 07/01/2013

As protests continued in Brazilian streets, three fourths of a sample of 4,717 voters interviewed last week by Datafolha in 196 cities said they want the prison sentences to take effect immediately against twelve people convicted last year of crimes of corruption in the so-called mensalão scandal to take effect immediately.

The case refers to a scheme set up by the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) to buy votes in Congress by paying representatives a monthly stipend. After a lengthy national televised trial of the 37 people indicted, Brazil’s Supreme Court returned guilty verdicts against twenty five. Twelve of those received prison sentences – a novelty in Brazil, which is famous for the impunity its political and judicial systems have historically ensured to people in high places through a lengthy appeal process. Among the sentenced to jail terms are José Dirceu de Oliveira, Lula’s first chief of staff and policy coordinator, a former president of his Workers Party (PT) and a former Speaker of the House.

Political corruption was one of the targets of an unprecedented wave of protests that has swept Brazil for the past two and a half weeks and is likely to continue. Significantly, the support for executing the prison sentences returned in the mensalão scandal was uniformly high among voters of all stripes, including those who identified themselves as members or sympathizers of Lula’s Workers Party.

Paulo Sotero is the director of the Brazil Institute at the Wilson Center

Read more....

About the Author

Paulo Sotero

Paulo Sotero

Distinguished Fellow, Brazil Institute
Read More

Brazil Institute

The Brazil Institute—the only country-specific policy institution focused on Brazil in Washington—works to foster understanding of Brazil’s complex reality and to support more consequential relations between Brazilian and US institutions in all sectors. The Brazil Institute plays this role by producing independent research and programs that bridge the gap between scholarship and policy, and by serving as a crossroads for leading policymakers, scholars and private sector representatives who are committed to addressing Brazil’s challenges and opportunities.  Read more