Home > Lula’s Sorry for Corruption Scandal, Promises Sanctions
Justice Parties Governments South/Latin America
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has asked for forgiveness from the Brazilian people for a scandal that has engulfed his government and promised that the guilty ones will be punished.
In asking for apologies in a TV address to the nation, he insisted he knows nothing about the alleged corruption, including a cash-for-votes scheme in the Brazilian Congress, in which key members of his Workers’ Party (PT) are said to be involved.
He also called for reform to the rules governing campaign finances.
Lula’s speech follows an admission by his 2002 presidential campaign manager, Duda Mendonca, that he failed to declare political funding from abroad. Mendoca admitted that the money had come from Marcos Valerio, the man at the center of the corruption scandal.
Valerio, an advertising executive with lucrative federal government contracts, loaned millions of reals to the Workers’ Party during the election campaign.
Mendonca insisted the money wat not used to fund the president’s own campaign.
Brazil’s financial markets have been hit by the scandal, as shown by Friday’s 2 percent fall of the real against the dollar. It had slipped Thursday by 3 percent, its biggest drop in 15 months.
The latest opinion polls show Lula’s popularity has fallen badly and that if elections were held today, he would lose a presidential seat to an opposition candidate.