Anderson Antunes – Forbes, 04/05/2013
There is plenty of blame to be shared for Brazil’s troubled political scenario. But for Marco Feliciano, the country’s human rights boss, it’s all the devil’s fault. At least that’s what he said during a religious gathering this past weekend in a small town in southeast Brazil, when talking about his predecessors–”They were dominated by Satan,” he reportedly told the audience, later explaining that by ‘Satan’ he “just meant his opponents.”
Feliciano is, of course, the ‘racist’ evangelical-preacher-turned-political leader whose most famous remarks include his depreciation of the opposite sex (“If women achieve gender equality, the traditional family will collapse and society will become gay”), African descendants (“They were cursed by Noah. That’s a fact”) and gays (“Salvation is available to them in the form a gay ‘cure’). He is also under investigation for embezzlement and homophobia. In spite of his controversial resumé, Feliciano was recently-elected president of Brazil’s House of Representatives Human Rights and Minorities Commission, creating, as one would expect, a national uproar.
Although his ascendance to the job was fairly constitutional, since he was democratically elected as a representative with tens of thousands of votes, and therefore represents the people (or a part of the people, as the rule goes in a democracy) to preside over the commission, apparently none of the representatives who chose him as a human rights defender thought of researching his views on the aforementioned topics, consequently avoiding the stir. And, most importantly, nobody cared if he had the credentials for the office he now holds. Why not? Because it simply doesn’t matter.
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Posted by Brazil Institute 
Dilma’s new broom
August 31, 2011Dilma Rousseff has had an uncomfortably busy three months. Following a slew of corruption allegations, Brazil’s president has lost her minister for transport, the number two at the agriculture ministry and her chief of staff. Ms Rousseff’s unyielding stance on corruption is a welcome departure from the relaxed attitude that has typified Brazilian politics for too long – and a further sign that she is stamping her own authority on the government she inherited from Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The cost of corruption is inherently hard to quantify, but it is significant. The São Paolo-based Federation of Industries puts it at between R$50bn and R$84bn per year. That is about 2 per cent of gross domestic product. With big infrastructure projects under way ahead of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, there is scope for much more. It is no coincidence that the transport and tourism ministries have been at the heart of recent scandals. If Brazil is to fulfil its economic potential, corruption must be countered vigorously.
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