Brazilian coup government sabotages corruption investigation

This 1975 music video from the USA is called Rose Royce – Car Wash.

However, this blog post is about another Car Wash: an investigation about corrupt politicians in Brazil.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Attorney general sacked to suppress Car Wash probe

Monday 12th September 2016

BRAZIL’s former attorney-general has accused putschist President Michel Temer of sacking him to derail a major corruption probe.

“I have no doubt that I was fired because the government wants to suppress the investigation,” Fabio Medina Osorio told news magazine Veja in an interview published on Saturday.

“It fears how far the investigation will go,” in the so-called Car Wash probe, he said.

Mr Osorio was dismissed on Friday and replaced by Grace Mendonca, the first woman appointed to Mr Temer’s otherwise all-white, all-male cabinet.

Mr Temer’s press office said it had no immediate comment on the allegations.

Prosecutors allege some £1.5 billion in bribes was paid by companies in return for inflated building contracts with state oil firm Petrobras.

The investigation has ensnared dozens of congress members, senators and business people — most prominently former congress speaker Eduardo Cunha, a member of Mr Temer’s PMDB party who was forced to quit over allegations that he personally received millions in bribes.

Former vice-president Mr Temer, also accused of receiving bribes, was sworn in on August 31 after the senate voted to impeach elected president Dilma Rousseff over allegations of inflating government spending in the 2014 election year.

Ms Rousseff and her Workers Party have repeatedly said one aim of the “legislative coup” was to kill the Car Wash investigation.

In the three months of Mr Temer’s interim government, four ministers resigned after secret recordings emerged of them discussing the plot to stymie the probe.

Watchdog groups estimate that 60 per cent of members of both houses of congress are under investigation for corruption.