BRAZIL: SENATE PRESIDENT RENAN CALHEIROS RESIGNS.

Brazil's former head of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, resigned early in December while under investigation for charges of corruption. He had taken a leave of absence to fight the allegations (see NotiSur, 2007-10-26), with Brazilian media reporting that the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hoped removing Calheiros from the center of attention would allow a key financing and tax bill to move through the Senate without opposition obstructions. But the opposition won a double victory, successfully ousting Calheiros--a Lula ally--as head of the Senate and defeating Lula's proposal to tax financial transactions. Calheiros remains a senator.

Congressional commissions end impeachment process

Calheiros resigned as Senate president before a vote that could have led to his expulsion after a long-running corruption scandal (see NotiSur, 2007-06-01 and 2007-09-14), a scandal that includes accusations that he used third parties to buy two radio stations and a newspaper. He announced his decision in a speech to the Senate a short time before the vote was to take place.

The Senate president had fought a fierce battle to preserve his job and survived one vote that threatened his position in September 2007. He had stepped down from his post for a 45-day leave of absence after resisting calls to resign since May 2007.

The allegations this time focused on claims that he had used third parties as a front to illegally purchase two radio stations and a newspaper in his home state of Alagoas. In the earlier stages of the scandal, he admitted using a lobbyist to pass on substantial child-support payments to his former mistress but always claimed that it was his own money.

Announcing his resignation just ahead of the impeachment vote, Calheiros again denied the claims against him and said, "I give up my mandate as Senate president without grief or resentment, holding my head high."

Critics noted that, by resigning, he also avoided being stripped of the right to run for office for eight years, which would have been the result had he lost the vote, a fate that befell one of Lula's closest collaborators, Jose Dirceu (see NotiSur, 2005-12-09).