RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Outgoing United States Ambassador to Brazil, Todd Chapman, said in an interview with ‘O Estado de Sao Paulo’ that the threat of not holding elections in 2022, as expressed by some top officials of President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, is not a serious problem. “Democracy is rock-solid in Brazil, the cancer is corruption.”
Ambassador Chapman, who is completing a round of visits and contacts before he retires from the US diplomatic service, downplayed any chances of a coup in Brazil, “For us, democracy is nonnegotiable, and Brazil is a super democratic country. All those who have forecast the end of democracy in Brazil, have erred always.”
President Bolsonaro is against the electronic voting machines and wants a return to the traditional paper ballots, arguing their absence can facilitate electoral fraud. He suggested canceling elections if he doesn’t get his way.
But his Minister of Defense, Army General Braga Netto, was more direct and openly contemplated not holding elections next year. However, this sparked a barrage of criticism from the political system, media, and social organizations.
Ambassador Chapman went further, ”the problems in Brazil are the Mensalão (monthly payments to lawmakers to have legislation passed), the skimming of billions from Petrobras, the Lava Jato Odebrecht bribes…”
The Lava Jato investigations, which sent dozens of politicians and private and public top officials to jail, were centered on events during the governments of ex-President Lula da Silva and his successor, Dilma Rousseff. Likewise, now there are investigations into alleged involvement of Bolsonaro administration officials in corrupt practices with the purchase of Covid 19 vaccines.