Noam Chomsky: Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff

"Impeached by a Gang of Thieves"

MAY 17, 2016

STORY

TOPICS
Brazil

GUESTS
NOAM CHOMSKY
world-renowned political dissident, linguist
and author. He is institute professor
emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, where he has taught for more
than 50 years. His latest book is titled Who
Rules the World?

As protests continue in Brazil over the Legislatures vote to

suspend President Dilma Rousseff and put her on trial,
Noam Chomsky notes that "we have the one leading
politician who hasnt stolen to enrich herself, whos being
impeached by a gang of thieves, who have done so. That
does count as a kind of soft coup." Rousseffs replacement,
Brazils former vice president, Michel Temer, is a member of
the opposition PMDB party who is implicated in Brazils
massive corruption scandal involving state-owned oil
company Petrobras, and has now appointed an all-white
male Cabinet charged with implementing corporate-friendly

policies.

TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its nal form.

AMY GOODMAN: What about whats happening right now in Brazil, where
protests are continuing over the Legislatures vote to suspend President
Dilma Rousseff and put her on trial? Now El Salvador has refused to
recognize the new Brazilian government. The Brazilianthe Salvadoran
president, Cern, said Rousseffs ouster had, quote, "the appearance of a
coup dtat." Whats happening there? And what about the difference
betweenit looked like perhaps Bush saved Latin America simply by not
focusing on it, totally wrapped up in Iraq and Afghanistan. It looks like the
Obama administration is paying a bit more attention.

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, I dont think its just a matter of not paying
attention. Latin America has, to a signi cant extent, liberated itself from
foreignmeaning mostly U.S.domination in the past 10 or 15 years. Thats
a dramatic development in world affairs. Its the rst time in 500 years. Its a
big change. So the so-called lack of attention is partly the fact that the U.S.
is kind of being driven out of the hemisphere, less that it can do. It used to
be able to overthrow governments, carry out coups at will and so on. It tries.

There have been threemaybe it depends how you count themcoups, coup
attempts this century. One in Venezuela in 2002 succeeded for a couple of
days, backed by the U.S., overthrown by popular reaction. A second in Haiti,
2004, succeeded. The U.S. and FranceCanada helpedkidnapped the
president, sent him off to Central Africa, wont permit his party to run in
elections. That was a successful coup. Honduras, under Obama, there was a
military coup, overthrew a reformist president. The United States was
almost alone in pretty much legitimizing the coup, you know, claiming that
the elections under the coup regime were legitimate. Honduras, always a
very poor, repressed society, became a total horror chamber. Huge ow of
refugees, we throw them back in the border, back to the violence, which we
helped create. Paraguay, there was a kind of a semi-coup. Whats happening
also to get rid of a progressive priest who was running the country brie y.

Whats happening in Brazil now is extremely unfortunate in many ways. First

of all, there has been a massive level of corruption. Regrettably, the Workers
Party, Lulas party, which had a real opportunity to achieve something
extremely signi cant, and did make some considerable positive changes,
nevertheless joined the restthe traditional elite in just wholesale robbery.
And that shouldthat should be punished. On the other hand, whats
happening now, what you quoted from El Salvador, I think, is pretty accurate.
Its a kind of a soft coup. The elite detested the Workers Party and is using
this opportunity to get rid of the party that won the elections. Theyre not
waiting for the elections, which theyd probably lose, but they want to get rid
of it, exploiting an economic recession, which is serious, and the massive
corruption thats been exposed. But as even The New York Times pointed
out, Dilma Rousseff is maybe the one politician who hasntleading
politician who hasnt stolen in order to bene t herself. Shes being charged
with manipulations in the budget, which are pretty standard in many
countries, taking from one pocket and putting it into another. Maybe its a
misdeed of some kind, but certainly doesnt justify impeachment. In fact,
sheswe have the one leading politician who hasnt stolen to enrich herself,
whos being impeached by a gang of thieves, who have done so. That does
count as a kind of soft coup. I think thats correct.

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