{"id":23960,"date":"2016-03-17T01:51:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T01:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/protests-in-brazil-after-lula-appointed-chief-of\/"},"modified":"2016-03-17T01:50:50","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T01:50:50","slug":"protests-in-brazil-after-lula-appointed-chief-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/protests-in-brazil-after-lula-appointed-chief-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests in Brazil after Lula appointed chief of staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Tens of thousands call President Dilma Rousseff to resign after decision to appoint her predecessor as chief of staff.}<\/p>\n

Protests have erupted across Brazilian cities after President Dilma Rousseff appointed her predecessor Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva as chief of staff and a taped conversation fed opposition claims the move was meant to shield the former leader from prosecution.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of protesters on Wednesday took to the streets of the capital Brasilia and Sao Paulo, the country’s financial hub, demanding Rousseff’s resignation.<\/p>\n

Critics said Lula’s appointment as chief of staff could help him avoid possible detention in an expanding corruption investigation that has now touched the top of Brazil’s political leadership.<\/p>\n

“Brazil cannot continue with them anymore,” opposition politician Rubens Bueno said. “They are using their positions to stay in power at all cost.”<\/p>\n

But Rousseff rejected the accusations, saying Lula was chosen for his experience and strong record of championing sound economic policies.<\/p>\n

“He is going to help; we are going to look at returning to growth, fiscal stability and controlling inflation,” Rousseff said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the federal judge overseeing the graft probe said in a court filing released on Wednesday that taped telephone conversations showed Lula and Rousseff considered trying to influence prosecutors and courts in favor of the former president.<\/p>\n

He admitted, however, there was no evidence they actually carried this out. One recording, made public by the court, showed Rousseff offering to send Lula a copy of his appointment “in case it was necessary”.
\n{{
\nBrazil recession}}<\/p>\n

Hundreds protest in Brazil to demand president’s resignation
\nThe head of the government coalition in the lower house of Congress, Jose Guimaraes, confirmed Lula’s appointment on Twitter after a meeting of Rousseff, the former president and senior ministers on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

The move offers Lula short-term protection from prosecutors who have charged him with money laundering and fraud.<\/p>\n

Lula’s return to government may also spell a change of economic tack, as he has openly criticised austerity efforts and called for more public spending to end Brazil’s worst recession in decades.<\/p>\n

Brazil’s currency slid nearly two percent on Wednesday and has lost almost seven percent this week as Dilma’s invitation to Lula raised expectations of a sharp policy swing.<\/p>\n

{{Fresh accusations}}<\/p>\n

Lula’s return to Brasilia on Tuesday was overshadowed by a barrage of fresh corruption accusations by Senator Delcidio do Amaral, a close Workers’ Party ally of the president until he was arrested last year.<\/p>\n

In plea bargain testimony, Amaral said Rousseff knew about a massive graft scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras and one of her ministers had tried to buy his silence.<\/p>\n

Rousseff’s popularity has been pummelled by Brazil’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and the two-year-old corruption investigation arising from Petrobras.<\/p>\n

More than a million people marched in demonstrations across Brazil on Sunday, calling for Rousseff’s impeachment and applauding the corruption probe that has turned up evidence of political kickbacks paid by Petrobras contractors.<\/p>\n

Once appointed, Lula can only be tried in the Supreme Court, placing him out of the reach of ongoing state and federal probes.<\/p>\n

\"Thousands<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Tens of thousands call President Dilma Rousseff to resign after decision to appoint her predecessor as chief of staff.} Protests have erupted across Brazilian cities after President Dilma Rousseff appointed her predecessor Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva as chief of staff and a taped conversation fed opposition claims the move was meant to shield the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23960"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23960"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}