Brazil justice minister resigns over corruption investigation News
Brazil justice minister resigns over corruption investigation

[JURIST] Brazilian Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo resigned on Monday amid pushback from the ruling Worker’s Party over his failure to reign in the corruption investigation targeting public officials, including former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva [BBC profile]. Cardozo will be replaced [Bloomberg report] by Wellington Cesar Lima e Silva, the chief prosecutor from Bahia, and will become the new attorney general. Lula was subpoenaed [JURIST report] in January in connection with money laundering linked to the Petrobas [corporate website] scandal [JURIST report]. Cardozo declined to interfere [Reuters report] with the investigations despite political pressure to do say, claiming that he cannot interfere without evidence of police violations of individual rights.

More than 100 individuals and 50 politicians have been arrested in connection to the Petrobras scandal, including the chief of staff under Brazil’s former President Jose Dirceu, former speaker of the house Eduardo Cunha [JURIST report] and the former President Fernando Collor de Mellon [Britannica profile] in various kickback schemes. Attempts to impeach [JURIST report] the current president, and former chairwoman of Petrobras, Dilma Rousseff [BBC profile] were also made, but the parliamentary commission found no proof implicating her in the Petrobras scandal. In November Brazil’s highest court ordered [JURIST report] the arrest of André Esteves, the chief executive of the country’s largest investment bank, and that of Delcídio do Amaral, a powerful senator of the country’s ruling party, both accused of bribery and corruption affiliated with Petrobras.

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