Graft Charges Fuel Move to Impeach Brazil’s Chief

President Fernando Collor de Mello faced a rapidly growing movement for his impeachment Monday as the Brazilian Congress prepared to weigh documented charges of corruption in his administration.

Public and political support for Collor has dwindled in recent weeks in response to mounting evidence of massive graft and illicit payoffs. Street demonstrations against the president in the past week have further deepened his crisis and darkened his prospects for surviving the so-called “Collorgate”--a name meant to evoke the Watergate scandal that toppled President Richard M. Nixon.

On Monday, Brazilian broadcast media began airing campaign spots for nationwide municipal elections, and politicians from many parties used the spots to open fire on Collor.

Cesar Maia, a candidate for mayor of Rio, warned of corruption taking over here “as it took over in Brasilia,” the capital. Tecio Lins e Silva, another Rio mayoral candidate, chided a rival for not participating in an anti-Collor demonstration that crowded Rio’s beachside avenue Sunday.

The Brazilian bar association added its voice Monday to the chorus against Collor. Marcello Lavenere Machado, president of the national Order of Lawyers, said chairmen of all state chapters had concluded that strong evidence exists for charging Collor with “political responsibility” for corruption, which legally justifies impeachment.

A special congressional commission, which has linked Collor to what has emerged as a multimillion-dollar scheme of influence-peddling, is scheduled to publish its report Saturday, and a showdown on impeachment could come within weeks. Impeachment would be a stunning precedent for Latin America, where the balance of government power is generally weighted heavily in favor of the executive branch.

The congressional commission’s investigation has centered on Paulo Cesar Farias, a businessman known by the nickname “PC” who was Collor’s campaign treasurer in 1989. Bank documents leaked by commission members have shown payments of millions of dollars to Collor associates from accounts linked to Farias. Many of the accounts were operated under false names, but investigators traced them to Farias business addresses.

Among the most incriminating evidence against Collor are canceled checks for $9.1 million received by his secretary and more than $1 million received by his wife and her secretary. Some of the money was used to pay household expenses and refurbishing costs at Collor’s family mansion in Brasilia, according to press reports.

Although Collor has denied any association with Farias since taking office, witnesses have told the commission that Farias claimed to represent the president in business conferences. Farias has been accused of offering to use his influence on behalf of businessmen seeking government contracts and favors in exchange for illegal “commissions.”

The news magazine Isto-e said some members of the commission “suspect that part of the dirty money comes from drug trafficking.” Such suspicions have focused on Farias’ Lear Jet, named the Black Bat, which has made unexplained trips to Colombia and Bolivia, both cocaine-producing countries.

Impeachment, which requires two-thirds of the lower house of Congress, would suspend Collor from the presidency pending a Senate trial. A recent survey by the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo indicated that more than one-third of the Chamber of Deputies would support the president.