Brazil’s political establishment was shaken on Friday by the news that federal prosecutors had opened an inquiry into the business activities of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who presided over Brazil’s emergence this century as a leading power in the developing world.
Da Silva, 69, was among the founders of Brazil’s governing Workers Party.
The inquiry by a special anticorruption unit of the Brazilian Public Ministry, a body of independent prosecutors, is reportedly delving into Da Silva’s ties to Odebrecht, one of Brazil’s largest construction companies. That the inquiry, a preliminary step before deciding whether to open a broader investigation, had opened was first reported by Brazilian magazine Epoca.
Photo: AFP
The prosecutors are examining whether Da Silva improperly used his influence as a former president and one of Brazil’s most powerful political figures to obtain loans from Brazil’s National Development Bank, a state-controlled financial institution with a lending portfolio larger than that of the World Bank, for Odebrecht’s dealings in Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
After eight years as president, from 2003 to 2010, when Brazil enjoyed robust economic growth and expanded its antipoverty projects, Da Silva leveraged his prominence to attract lucrative speaking engagements outside Brazil. He often traveled abroad on one of Odebrecht’s private jets, Epoca reported.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Odebrecht denied any wrongdoing in connection to the questions raised in the inquiry.
Speaking before supporters in Sao Paulo on Friday during a commemoration of International Workers’ Day, Da Silva did not specifically address news of the inquiry.
However, in a speech, he lashed out at some in the media, referring specifically to Epoca and Veja, another magazine that has reported critically on him.
“I see in these Brazilian magazines, which are trash, the insinuations,” Da Silva said. “They’re out to get Lula, but that’s what I like if they want a fight.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
RSS