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One of the big losers from yesterday’s successful election in Honduras has been Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who demonstrated that under his presidency, Brazil is not ready to play a positive leadership role in the hemisphere. Not only did Lula seem to be complicit in smuggling deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya into the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa—an irresponsible move that risked the possibility of major confrontations and bloodshed in that country—but he stubbornly refuses to recognize yesterday’s election as legitimate. Lula’s grandstanding has nothing to do with a supposed commitment to democracy, of course. After all he...

It's not clear who will be running Honduras from now on, but the clear loser in the nation's protracted political crisis is Brazil. Ever since the June ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, Brazil has been working to restore him to power. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva denounced the "coup makers" at the U.N. in September, just before Zelaya sneaked back into Honduras and took refuge at the Brazilian Embassy. But by allowing Zelaya to use his diplomatic shield to broadcast radio messages from the embassy, Brazil ended up looking like a biased broker--which only worsened tensions by...

SNIPPET: "Lula and Chavez have established a "strategic relationship," and recently agreed upon a joint Brazilian-Venezuelan oil venture worth billions of dollars. Lula and Chavez have joined with Daniel Ortega, the returned Nicaraguan Marxist dictator, to form an anti-U.S. Latin American military alliance - all with Russian assistance - funded by the region's abundant oil reserves. Brazil is engaged in its own arms build-up and Lula is determined that Brazil will become at least a first-rate regional power. Unfortunately, Lula is establishing Brazil as an anti-American military power by aligning with nations hostile or potentially hostile to the U.S. Lula...

Recent events in Honduras demonstrate, clearer than any other problematic political situation in Latin America, the moral fickleness of the so called international community and the media. For that country’s independent and sovereign institutions, read the Supreme Court, the Attorney General’s Office and Congress, ruled, unanimously in the case of Congress, in favor of removing Manuel Zelaya from power, owing to his violations to Honduras constitution. This crucial fact notwithstanding, we have seen universal condemnation of the new administration of Honduras. It comes relentless from all quarters, from all locations, from across parties, it is an issue that has exemplified,...

(English-language translation) Sao Paulo - High-level officials with the Brazilian government are accusing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of "orchestrating" the plan for the return of deposed Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya, who is sheltered at the Brazilian Embassy, the local press reports. Advisors to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Foreign Ministry interviewed by Sao Paulo newspaper O Estado pointed out that the "infrastructure, the logistics, and the advice to specifically seek the Brazilian Embassy" for Zelaya's clandestine return were prepared by Chávez. Zelaya's unexpected bursting into Brazil's diplomatic legation has caused an unprecedented and hard-to-resolve conflict, since...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Although only a couple of miles from each other, the two men who claim to be the president of Honduras passed another day without meeting on Wednesday as residents of this capital city used a break in a curfew to store up supplies and hunker down for what could be an extended political standoff. “We need to sit down face to face,” Manuel Zelaya, the deposed leader, said in a telephone interview from the Brazilian Embassy, where he has been holed up since slipping back into the country from exile on Monday. He complained of harassment of...

BRASILIA - Brazil may not have invited ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya to take refuge in its embassy there, but opening its door to him is a high-risk bet that could harm its regional leadership ambitions. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's decision to grant Zelaya refuge at short notice at its embassy in Tegucigalpa has thrust Brazil to the center of the crisis, giving it a chance to take a high-profile role in efforts to end the stand-off. The risk, though, is that Brazil gets drawn into a messy power dispute in the Central American nation that is far...

<p>TEGUCIGALPA (AP) — The de facto government of Honduras extended the curfew until Wednesday at 6:00 AM after dispersing with gas and nightsticks hundreds of supporters of deposed President Manuel Zelaya, who remains at the Brazilian Embassy.</p> <p>A defiant Zelaya stated from the diplomatic compound that, for him, the motto is "restitution or death, which is an allegorical phrase that has been used since the French Revolution....we are ready for anything: for risk, for sacrifice."</p>

The great Brazilian miracle Phenomenal resistance by a poor Christian minority in Brazil hinders the advance of several threats from the gay agenda subsidized by the Lula administration By Julio SeveroBarack Obama, the would-be Antichrist, barely became US president and he has already been advancing anti-“homophobia” bills.For years, Lula, the socialist president of Brazil, has been trying to advance such bills in Brazil, with the assistance of many homosexual groups that receive training and grants from powerful US organizations, but he is stumbling in difficulties because of a very small opposition. Why is Obama, in so a short time, being...

hina, Russia and Brazil will use this week's G8 summit in Italy to push their view that the world needs to start seeking a new global reserve currency as an alternative to the dollar, officials said on Tuesday. As leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations and the major developing powers traveled to Italy for a three-day summit starting on Wednesday, it seemed unlikely the currency debate would get a specific mention in summit documents. But both G8 member Russia and emerging power Brazil -- which like China and India is a member of the "G5" that joins the...

The cost of the high popularity of Lula Notwithstanding his anti-life and anti-family policies, huge state investments in propaganda ensure popularity for Lula Julio SeveroBrazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported, “Approval ratings for Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rose from 78% on March to 80% on June, according to data from the CNI/Ibope polls released June 9. The percentage of respondents considering the Lula administration very good or good also improved: it went up from 64% to 68%. The rates of those disapproving the Lula administration fell from 19% to 16%”.Certainly, the respondents were not asked...

World amazed by unprecedented address by President Lula at the UN Human Rights Council International community welcomes Brazilian president tackling important ethical issues in a fair way Julio SeveroBrazilian President Lula da Silva delivered an important address at the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, on 15 June 2009, where he affirmed that the protection and promotion of human rights have been a central part of his administration.In his speech, he used as example the case of the Cuban athletes that requested asylum in Brazil in 2007. Given that they were innocent citizens suffering oppression from a communist government internationally...

Iran, hatred of Jews and the schizophrenic Lula administration Brazilian representatives at the UN condemn evangelicals, but do not Hitler’s successor By Julio SeveroOn 20 April 2009, dozens of Western representatives walked out during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s address at the UN-sponsored Durban II conference against racism in Geneva. Even to Westerners, used to tolerating all kinds of prejudice against Israel, the address of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the conference was too much. As usual, he accused Israel of racism and other attributes.In addition to denying the Holocaust — with about six-million Jews murdered by Nazism —, Ahmadinejad...

Brazilian Ministry of [in]Justice of the Lula administration wants strict control on Internet Julio SeveroTruth should be shown so that people may know what is happening.However, in Brazil major television networks refuse flatly to defend truth, covering up important information about the moral, financial and ethical corruption of the most corrupt government in the history of Brazil.By coincidence, this government is socialist.Over the media the Lula administration has a nice and attractive ”censorship”: when a TV network is well-behaved, state companies are nice with it, making big investments in sponsorship of TV shows.It is very easy to keep the “independent”...

<p>LONDON (AP) — President Barack Obama — wildly popular the world over — says he isn't the globe's most admired politician. He says that title belongs to Brazil's president.</p> <p>During a lunch at the Group of 20 summit in London, Obama shook hands with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and said: "This is my man, right here. I love this guy."</p>

Julio Severo away from Brazil Open letter to the friends of Blog Julio Severo Dear FriendsI have arrived at a new place, being now away from Brazil and away from friends. It was not an easy decision. In fact, it was the only alternative. Because of a 2006 complaint from the Associação da Parada do Orgulho Gay de São Paulo (Gay Pride Parade Association of São Paulo), federal prosecutors have been looking for my location. The complaint is “homophobia”.Actually, there is no anti-“homophobia” law in Brazil. Even so, federal prosecutors have recently summoned one of my friends to reveal my...

Gays, persecution and lies: the eternal soap opera By alleging “persecution” in the pro-sodomy Brazil, Brazilian gay requests asylum in the pro-sodomy US By Julio SeveroAguinaldo Silva, a writer of soap operas for the Brazilian TV Globo Network, invented in his soap opera “Duas Caras” scenarios where evangelicals are violent, irrational and dangerous against gays. And homosexuals are portrayed as innocent little angels…Faced with this kind of scenarios, any nation would be supposed to grant asylum to the “victims”. The big problem is that the real victims of the soap operas of Aguinaldo Silva — and of TV Globo —...

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said the world's poor people should not be forced to pay for the global financial crisis. President Lula said white, blue-eyed people - not Indians, nor black, nor poor people - had created and spread the crisis throughout the world.

A president Hell asked for By Julio SeveroIt is not hard to know what a devil wishes. When in his Nazi obsession Hitler began to persecute Jews, the signs were clear. When Hitler began to meddle in the freedom of faithful Christians and persecute them, the signs were clear.Similarly, when in his communist obsession Stalin began to slaughter Ukrainians, who perished by millions, the signs were clear. When Stalin began to destroy the freedom of Christians, the signs were clear.It would be a horrendous crime not to condemn Hitler and Nazi or Stalin and communism. It would also, in any...

“This crisis was caused by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing,” charged the brown-eyed, bearded socialist president [Lula of Brazil]. As the brown-eyed Brown grew a whiter shade of pale, Lula hammered the obvious point that the poor of the world were suffering in the global crash because of the misdeeds of the rich. “I do not know any black or indigenous bankers,” said Lula. He also told CNN he would press this theme at the G-20 meeting in London this week....

Brazil's President, while meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Thursday, said the global financial crisis was caused by "white people with blue eyes." Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvamade made the comments after talks with Brown to try to forge a global consensus on how to save the worldwide economy. During a press conference, da Silva, a socialist who told Brown poor countries should not have to suffer because of the mistakes of the rich, suddenly pointed his finger at Brown and said, "This is a crisis that was caused by white people with blue eyes. And before the crisis,...

According to a report in the O Globo newspaper of February 7, 2009, “Only 1% Brazilians above the age of16 years do not discriminate against homosexuals”. What does this “study” mean? That only 1% Brazilians do not kill homosexuals? That only 1% Brazilians do not assault homosexuals? Since the term “discrimination” is often interpreted to mean words and views against homosexuality, what are the implications of that “study”? The “study” was led by the Brazilian socialist foundations Perseu Abramo and Rosa Luxemburgo, which polled how many Brazilians do not accept homosexuality. Perseu Abramo Foundation has connections to the Workers’ Party,...

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Brazil's Senate on Thursday refused to renew a financial transaction tax that fills the government's coffers, handing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a political defeat that could threaten his social programs for the poor. The vote held before dawn after months of contentious debate fell four votes shy of the 60 percent majority needed to extend the tax until 2011, meaning Silva's administration stands to lose about $22 billion in revenue per year. The money is used to fund programs ranging from health care to the president's famed anti-hunger program aimed at lifting Brazilians...

LifeSiteNews.com Interviews Brazil's Pro-Life Evangelist Julio Severo - Part II Pro-abort and homosexual movement tactics, the disaster of Luiz Lula, homosexual activism in Brazil, persecution of Severo, a prayer book By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman See Part I at http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07082810.html SAO PAULO, August 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) LifeSiteNews.com: What are the tactics used by the pro-abortion and homosexual movements in Brazil? Julio Severo: They are undermining rights linked to family and sexuality. There are pervasive propaganda efforts showing that women are vulnerable and need state protection. Then they are trained for empowerment, to understand that the ideal life is to enter the...

Interview with, Brazil's "most discriminated against and persecuted" Pro-Life Activist Julio Severo reveals details of lengthy struggle against attempts of UN and US organizations to corrupt Brazil society By Steve Jalsevac and Matthew Cullinan Hoffman SAO PAULO, August 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- LifeSiteNews.com's Matthew Cullinan Hoffman recently had the opportunity to extensively interview Julio Severo, to ask him about the situation in Brazil, and the challenges he faces as a pro-life and pro-family activist increasingly under fire by anti-life forces in his country. Severo was recently described by the Brazilian philosopher and political commentator Olavo de Carvalho as "the most...

Brazil Government Will Use Taxpayer Dollars for Sex Change Operations By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman BRASILIA, August 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- The Brazilian Ministry of Health has announced that the government will begin to provide free sex-change operations the public, in compliance with a government initiated court order. The decision, rendered by Brazil's Fourth Regional Federal Court, decreed that sex-change operations are a "right" covered by Brazil's constitution, which guarantees "health care" to all citizens. The approval of free sex change operations was largely a staged event by the socialist administration of Luiz Lula, who has been Brazil's president since 2003....

20,000 Brazilians Protest Attempted Expansion of Abortion By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman BRASILIA, August 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Tens of thousands of people from fifteen Brazilian states marched through Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, to protest proposed legislation to permit more abortion, last Wednesday. The event was organized by "Brazil Without Abortion", an organization supported by several national organizations, including the Brazilian National Bishops' Conference, the Brazilian Spiritual Federation, the Council of Evangelical Churches, and the leadership of other religious groups.   Appearing with the marchers were several notable Brazilians, including current and former members of the Brazilian Congress, and religious leaders...

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Latin America: Sunday's surprising gains by the right in Brazil's election are a sign the region's great wave of leftism is peaking. Global forces are trumping the allure of greater government. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Latin America's election results this year show a shift away from the left — not toward it. It began in earnest when Peruvian and Mexican voters defied forecasts to elect center-right leaders in June and July who vowed to respect free markets. But Brazil's election Sunday, where center-right challenger Geraldo Alckmin forced a runoff in the presidential race on Oct. 29, is especially significant. Although...

Millions of Brazilians are voting in presidential elections with Luis Inacio Lula da Silva seeking a second term. Lula, as the president is known, is seeking the 50% of votes needed to win outright victory in the first round. But his lead in opinion polls narrowed ahead of the vote, amid allegations of corruption and dirty tricks involving his Workers' Party. His main rival is Geraldo Alckmin, the centre-left, business-friendly former governor of Sao Paulo state. Since Lula, the first left-winger to hold the country's highest office in 50 years, was elected in a landslide victory in 2001, his welfare...

Sao Paulo, Sep 3 (EFE).- Brazilian former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso accused the country's current leader, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, of presiding over "a republic of scoundrels" in an editorial published Sunday in the Sao Paulo daily O Estado. The piece was in keeping with Cardoso's strenuous campaign to prevent Lula's reelection in the Oct. 1 vote, despite the fact that all the opinion polls taken to date say the president's triumph is a certainty. "How is it possible that in the face of so much moral disaster people can vote to consolidate a presidential situation whose sins are...

Brazilian ambassador in Chile described as mere “fantasy” alleged statements by President Lula da Silva particularly offensive towards Chile, Argentine president Nestor Kirchner and former Uruguayan president Jorge Batlle. “I can assure you it is all mere fantasy”, said Ambassador Mario Vilalva in Santiago adding that “I can back my words because I happened to be at the official dinner at the Brazilian Embassy in Tokyo”, when the alleged incident took place. In a book released this week titled “Travels with the President” two Brazilian journalists, Eduardo Scolese and Leonencio Nossa wrote that President Lula in the Embassy in Tokyo...

The first confirmation came from Lula da Silva: Fidel Castro has cancer. Later, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry denied the president's statement, but it was accurate. The Comandante bled, the surgeons opened him up and found a cancer that had spread and was incurable. Nothing strange in an 80-year-old man, of course. The prognosis is that he will die shortly. Nobody dares to predict a date. But European diplomats in Cuba say sotto voce that he will not see New Year's Day 2007, although they then qualify their opinion: ``At that age, cancer advances slowly.'' Curiously, Castro's calculations did not include...

The Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused the European Union, the United States, and other developed economies of "corrupting" inefficient farmers by granting of subsidies and, with this, producing "poverty" in the developing world. In a speech in the second session of the Summit of European Union-America Latin-Carribean, Lula inquired, "How long will we tolerate this perverse situation?" Later, he afirmed that "In the international community, the feeling grows that agricultural subsidies, which we already know are immoral, are also illegal. The countries that retain these privileges are, in truth, producing poverty in the undeveloped countries." Later, Lula...

Latin America: For a relatively small nation, Bolivia has an uncanny way of shaking up a continent, which it did last week with energy nationalization. For democracies like Brazil, it could be a turning point. In his surprise May Day announcement, President Evo Morales "nationalized" Bolivia's natural gas resources — not just by decree, but also by force. His leftist presidency was all of 100 days old as he moved in with a crude, 1960s-style seizure of 56 natural gas fields as well as private gas stations owned by Bolivians. All were taken as if by battle, with troops triumphantly...

BRASILIA, Brazil - A Brazilian congressional investigative committee gave its final approval Wednesday to a report recommending prosecution of over 100 people linked to a campaign finance and corruption scheme run by former members of the governing Workers Party. The final panel report, approved by a 17-4 vote, had already cleared Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from any direct involvement in the scheme. It will be sent to the Federal Prosecutors' Office, which will decide whether to take legal action. The probe report recommends prosecution against at least 18 members of Congress linked to the kickback and bribery...

I find it very strange that Washington considers North Korea's communism and Iran's extremism to be eminent dangers, but not Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's communism and Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner's extremism. The fact is, U.S.-Latin American relations are at one of their lowest historical points. The majority of Latin intellectuals traditionally have felt a deep and secret inferiority complex toward the U.S., blaming it for everything bad that takes place in the hemisphere. They have taught in both public and private schools and universities for three generations, and finally have seen their favorite students reach the top political positions not...

Latin America: Brazilians are rightly angry over allegations of illegal campaign donations from Fidel Castro. True or not, they coincide with an alarming weakness in foreign policy that benefits the Cuban dictator. Was there a connection? We wonder for two reasons. First, Castro in recent years has aggressively sought influence across Latin America on a scale not seen since the 1960s. Second, Brazil has been oddly passive in response. Fortified by the record-high oil earnings of his Venezuelan ally, Castro's had a free hand to whip up anti-capitalism and anti-Americanism in a bid to confront the West. Brazil is no...

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Cuba contributed $3 million to the 2002 election campaign of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a violation of electoral law, a leading news magazine reported on Saturday. The charges could reignite a government corruption scandal that the president had appeared to be putting behind him in recent weeks. Lula's campaign received the money in August and September 2002 through a Cuban diplomat stationed in Brazil, Veja magazine said in its latest issue. Lula, an old friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro, won the election in October that year. It was his fourth...

BRASILIA, Brazil - Impeachment proceedings began Wednesday against a federal legislator — a former top Cabinet official — in connection with a bribery scandal that has rocked President Luiz Inacio da Silva's Workers' Party, which prided itself on its ethical behavior. Rep. Jose Dirceu, who stepped down as Silva's chief of staff and returned to his seat in Congress in June, stands accused of overseeing an alleged scheme where the government paid lawmakers for their support on key votes. Dirceu again proclaimed his innocence Wednesday, saying "I'm going to defend myself, because I committed no crime." Dirceu has a week...

His voice hoarse, his arms waving, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told a cheering crowd that Brazil's "elites" would not break him, that he had learned from his poor, illiterate parents not to lie or to steal. "With a lot of sacrifice, I earned the right to hold my head up high," he told an applauding oil workers union. Silva, a former union boss elected in a landslide with pledges to make Brazil a "decent country," is back on the campaign trail. But this time it's to save his presidency from corruption charges, regain the trust of voters —...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - His voice hoarse, his arms waving, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told a cheering crowd that Brazil's "elites" would not break him, that he had learned from his poor, illiterate parents not to lie or to steal. "With a lot of sacrifice, I earned the right to hold my head up high," he told an applauding oil workers union. Silva, a former union boss elected in a landslide with pledges to make Brazil a "decent country," is back on the campaign trail. But this time it's to save his presidency from corruption charges,...

LulaWatchFocusing on the Latin American Left"The Lula government, as we knew it, is over." This is how an Epoca magazine editorial summarized Brazil's current political crisis. This undeniably serious crisis raises many questions about the future of the president and his administration.Veja magazine says that "Lula is trying to save the government and his legacy" while several members of the government are calling this time a "period of political agitation" in a climate of apprehension and instability.Until recently, this crisis seemed to have peaked with the resignation of the president's chief of staff, José Dirceu, usually seen as the government's...

The Carnival has come early this year because of the political scandals of Lula's government. You can see Lula and his friends singing YMCA from Village People in this cartoon: http://charges.uol.com.br/vercharge.php?idcharge=1786&modo=som It is very funny! Read more about the scandals of Lula's goverment: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southamerica/article_1032320.php/Brazilian_corruption_scandal_threatens_Lula http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/20/AR2005062001426.html http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/New_denunciations_of_Brazilian_deputy_and_evidence_make_things_difficult_for_Lula

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - The head of Brazil's ruling Workers' Party resigned on Saturday amid a snowballing political scandal that is likely to hurt President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's re-election chances next year. The worst political crisis in Brazil at least since Lula took over in January 2003 involves accusations that the president's Workers' Party bribed lawmakers for their support. Brazilian magazines have published reports over the past week saying Workers' Party head Jose Genoino co-signed two loans that also had the signature of Marcos Valerio, an advertising executive whose firm does a large amount of government business....

On June 30, in Brazil, deputy Roberto Jefferson testified to deputies and senators of a Commission that is investigating the alleged Post Office Service scandal. Jefferson's testimony along with new evidence supporting his testimony are putting the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a difficult situation. (...) According to Jefferson, the President of the Worker's Party José Genuino, former Minister José Dirceu, Secretary-General Sílvio Pereira, and Treasurer Delúbio Soares, head a widespread national corruption scheme which involves the Workers Party, members of the Government, the Brazilian Agency of Intelligence, and both government and private enterprises. (...) During...

On June 30, in Brazil, deputy Roberto Jefferson testified to deputies and senators of a Commission that is investigating the alleged Post Office Service scandal. Jefferson's testimony along with new evidence supporting his testimony are putting the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a difficult situation. (...) According to Jefferson, the President of the Worker's Party José Genuino, former Minister José Dirceu, Secretary-General Sílvio Pereira, and Treasurer Delúbio Soares, head a widespread national corruption scheme which involves the Workers Party, members of the Government, the Brazilian Agency of Intelligence, and both government and private enterprises. (...) During...

President Lula da Silva's great political weapon has been his double-dealing in both domestic and foreign policies. While appearing to be moderate and "pragmatic," he actually pursues his political plans of progressive radicalization. Analyzing his speeches to leftist grassroots, Pres. Lula da Silva never renounces or distances himself from his goals (even his most radical ones) but only appeals for "patience," anticipating a moment when he can implement his stronger socialist agenda. In a recent speech at the World Social Forum, Lula defined himself as a persevering man who prefers to take several small steps rather than one large one....

José Dirceu yesterday resigned as chief of staff in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's left-leaning government amid allegations his ruling Workers' party bribed legislators for support. The leader of the PTB party, a key government ally, has accused Mr Dirceu of involvement in the alleged bribery scheme that has shaken financial markets. Mr Dirceu said he would return to his post as deputy in the lower house of Congress to clarify "unfounded accusations" against him and his party. "I will mobilise the [Workers' party] to combat those who want to destabilise the Lula government," he said. Mr Dirceu is...

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - The politician who accused Brazil's governing party of paying bribes to win votes testified before Congress Tuesday that top presidential aides knew about the payoffs. Workers Party officials distributed cash to congressmen, "often arriving at predetermined locations with two huge suitcases full of cash," said Rep. Roberto Jefferson. Jefferson, leader of Brazil's Labor Party, said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's chief of staff and finance minister were aware of the bribes but did nothing to stop them. The monthly "allowances" of more than $12,000 came to an end after Jefferson said he informed Silva,...