Rousseff Sees Fourth Brazil Minister Resign on Allegations
August 18, 2011, 11:15 AM EDTBy Mario Sergio Lima and Alexander Ragir
(Adds appointment of Ribeiro in second paragraph.)
Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian Agriculture Minister Wagner Rossi resigned amid corruption allegations, the fourth top official to leave President Dilma Rousseff’s government in less than three months.
Rossi, a member of Rousseff’s main coalition partner, the Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, resigned yesterday after reports in Veja magazine that there was evidence of kickbacks and embezzlement in the ministry. Milton Ortolan, the ministry’s executive secretary, resigned Aug. 6 because of the reports. Rossi will be replaced by lawmaker Mendes Ribeiro, the presidency said in a statement today.
“During the past 30 days, I have faced daily a series of false accusations, without any proof,” Rossi said in a letter presented to announce his departure. “Finally, they started attacking innocent people, my friends, my family members.”
Rossi’s resignation could further complicate Rousseff’s relations with the governing coalition in Congress. The PMDB has 79 deputies in the 513-member lower house and 20 senators in the 81-seat upper chamber, while Rousseff’s Workers’ Party itself has 86 and 13, respectively. The Party of the Republic, which officially quit the coalition this week after former Transportation Minister Alfredo Nascimento resigned last month, has 40 deputies and six senators.
Government Leader
“I regret the minister couldn’t count on the principle of presumed innocence,” Rousseff said in a statement distributed to reporters in Brasilia yesterday.
Nelson Jobim, also from the PMDB, resigned as defense minister Aug. 4 after criticizing members of Rousseff’s government. Nascimento stepped down and Rousseff forced the resignations of more than 20 officials at the Transport Ministry after Veja reported kickbacks and over-billing at the agency, which has an annual budget the size of Paraguay’s $18 billion economy.
Rousseff lost a key ally June 7 when her chief of staff, Antonio Palocci, resigned following reports in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper that he used his position to enrich himself by serving as an intermediary for companies doing business with the government. Palocci at the time said the accusations were “baseless.”
Ribeiro, 56, is a lawmaker from the southern city of Porto Alegre.
--With assistance from Carla Simoes in Brasilia and Jose Enrique Arrioja in Mexico City. Editors: Harry Maurer, Bill Faries
To contact the reporters on this story: Mario Sergio Lima in Brasilia at mlima11@bloomberg.net Alexander Ragir in Rio De Janeiro at aragir@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net
