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- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: BRAZIL: CALLS FOR PSYCHIATRIC TESTS ON COLLOR
- Message-ID: <1992Sep6.082315.9800@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Organization: PACH
- Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 08:23:15 GMT
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-
- /** reg.samerica: 184.0 **/
- ** Topic: BRAZIL: SOCIAL LEADERS CALL FOR PSY **
- ** Written 5:31 pm Sep 4, 1992 by jbinder in cdp:reg.samerica **
- From: James Binder <jbinder>
- Subject: BRAZIL: SOCIAL LEADERS CALL FOR PSY
-
- /* Written 12:10 am Sep 3, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
- /* ---------- "BRAZIL: SOCIAL LEADERS CALL FOR PSY" ---------- */
- Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved. Permission to re-
- print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.
-
- Title: BRAZIL: SOCIAL LEADERS CALL FOR PSYCHIATRIC TESTS ON COLLOR
-
- an inter press service feature
-
- by gabriel canihuante and arnaldo cesar
-
- rio de janeiro, aug 31 (ips) -- social leaders here monday
- proposed that a panel of doctors should perform psychiatric tests
- on brazilian president fernando collor de mello to determine
- whether or not he is sane.
-
- the call followed closely on collor's rejecetion of a proposal
- that he should resign quietly as a way of resolving the crisis
- sparked by charges that the brazilian head of state is involved
- in a corruption scandal.
-
- the proposal has also been rejected by the opposition, which
- maintains that the president must be made an example and be tried
- on corruption charges.
-
- ''it would be very easy to prove that he is mad,'' said
- sociologist herbert de souza, director of the brazilian institute
- of socio-economic analysis (ibase), one of the country's most
- prestigious non-governmental organizations (ngo's).
-
- de souza said collor had lost contact with reality and that
- his speech on sunday had ''strengthened the opposition and public
- opinion.''
-
- ''with such crazy nonsense, i prefer to doubt his sanity. i do
- not think a person can be so cynical. he insults public opinion,
- reducing an impressive volume of denunciations to just a few
- issues,'' said catholic bishop mauro morelli.
-
- in a 20-minute address, carried sunday by radio and
- television, collor said an emphatic ''no'' to the idea of his
- resignation, pointing out that ''our generation has already paid
- an excessively high price as a result of the 1961 resignation,''
- of then president janio quadros.
-
- quadros' resignation gave rise to a severe institutional
- crisis, which led to a military coup in 1964.
-
- collor also attacked the national congress, where
- pro-government and opposition parliamentarians have been locked
- in negotiations over an honorable way out for the president,
- based on the consensus that if the crisis is prolonged it could
- severely hurt the economy.
-
- he said he would fight against parliamentary efforts to remove
- him from office, claiming ''we shall win, we shall win by the
- vote.''
-
- according to local surveys, 84 percent of the population
- disapprove of collor's government. a study by the ''folha de sao
- paulo'' daily, showed that 76 percent view his administration as
- ''extremely poor,'' while eight percent see it as ''poor''.
- (more)
- ----
-
-
- reacting to collor's speech, the president of the
- international association for group psychiatry, luis alberto py,
- said ''i see little attention for dialogue in the president's
- address. it is part of the pathology of powerful persons.''
-
- collor always refers to the 35 million votes he received at
- the 1989 presidential elections as ''if it were a type of
- absolute licence which gives him the right to do whatever he
- wants,'' py said.
-
- over the past few days parliamentarians had been trying to
- work out an escape route for the president: his resignation in
- exchange for impunity from prosecution.
-
- his speech was a disappointment to governmental secretary
- jorge bornhaussen, who had urged the president to condemn in
- clear terms the illegal activities of his friend and former
- campaign treasurer paulo cesar farias and leave some doors open
- for an honorable solution to the crisis.
-
- disregarding the recommendations and proposals of his
- political coordinator, collor one week ago signed a joint note
- with the rest of his cabinet in which they pledged to remain in
- power until the crisis is resolved.
-
- ''resignation is totally out of the question. it never entered
- the mind of the president,'' said presidential spokesman etevaldo
- dias.
-
- now that collor has said ''no'' to a negotiated solution, he
- risks losing the support of bornhausen's party, the liberal front
- party (pfl) which had so far been the cornerstone of the
- president's resistance to efforts to oust him.
-
- however, opposition politicians like senator mario covas,
- leader of the brazilian social democratic party (psdb) and the
- 95-year old president of brazil's press association, barbosa lima
- sobrinho, would not have been satisfied with a quiet resignation.
-
- stressing that a solution to the crisis could not be limited
- to collor's destitution, covas said monday that ''the humiliation
- of resignation is too mild for the evil he caused the country.''
-
- ''the president will have to be tried and condemned for crimes
- of fraud, omission, influence-peddling and misappropriation of
- public funds,'' said covas, a key member of the parliamentary
- commission of investigation (cpi) that examined corruption
- charges against farias, which also involved collor.
-
- lima sobrinho, designated by the opposition to co-sign a
- request for the impeachment of the president, maintained that
- ''if we are concerned with the restoration of morality and ethics
- in the country, we have to continue on to the end.'' (more)
- ----
-
-
- he said collor could not be absolved of responsibility ''for
- the crimes committed in public administration.''
-
- in his impeachment petition, which will be co-signed by the
- president of brazil's bar association, marcelo lavenere, lima
- sobrinho will ask for collor to be tried not only for political
- crimes, but also for common law offences such as fraud,
- corruption and crimes of omission, in which case he would have to
- appear before the supreme court.
-
- the vast sums of money which collor's support group is
- rumoured to have gathered, have contributed to galvanizing the
- movement against resignation without punishment and to calls for
- the confiscation of the property of the president and others
- involved in the corruption scandal.
-
- important publications like the ''veja'' magazine and the
- ''folha de sao paulo'' daily have reported that the president's
- advisers had celebrated in paris at the end of 1991, the
- collection of the first one billion dollars for the group's
- political fund.
-
- in its investigation, the cpi has been able to find evidence
- of irregularities amounting to close to 360 million u.s. dollars,
- but one of its members, senator jose paulo bisol, said that the
- parliamentarians' inquiry ''did not include even 10 percent of
- the corruption committed by that band.''
-
- ''neither the mafia nor the medellin cartel was able to gather
- so much money in so little time,'' said jair meneguelli,
- president of the unified workers' federation (cut), brazil's
- largest trade union federation.
-
- brazilian law does nor provide amnesty for persons convicted
- of misappropriation of public funds. if convicted, collor faces a
- jail sentence of up to 16 years, according to legal expert miguel
- seabra fagundes, a former justice minister.
- (end/ips/trd/so/ac-ug/gc-sfi/kb/92)
- ----
-
-
- ** End of text from cdp:reg.samerica **
-
-