Brazil’s President Given More Time to Prepare Defense

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday gave President Fernando Collor de Mello more time to prepare his last-ditch attempt to stave off impeachment, but the resignation of the president’s chief of staff reinforced the impression that he still faces long odds.

In a 7-1 decision, the court ruled that Congress must give the president until Sept. 24 or 25 to respond to accusations that he benefited from a giant influence-peddling scheme. Collor was originally ordered to complete his defense by Sept. 17.

In particular, Collor must explain how $9 million in checks drawn on illegal “ghost accounts” ended up in his personal coffers and those of his family and friends.

A congressional committee concluded Aug. 24 that the accounts, set up in the names of nonexistent people, were actually controlled by a friend of Collor. The friend, investigators say, masterminded a $330-million bribery and contract-fixing ring.

Collor’s response will be made to a committee of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Brazil’s legislature. A vote on impeachment by the full chamber is expected by Sept. 30. If it passes by a two-thirds vote, Collor will be removed from office for 180 days and stand trial in the Senate. Vice President Itamar Franco will take over in the interim, and if the president is convicted, Franco will remain in the presidency until the end of Collor’s term in 1995.

Collor’s high court victory Thursday came only hours after Jorge Bornhausen, his chief of staff, resigned. Two weeks ago, Bornhausen suggested that the president quit in exchange for congressional approval of an economic and social reform package designed to reduce the government’s role in the economy and open up the country to foreign investment and trade.

“The president chose another course of action,” Bornhausen said in his letter of resignation. “It is my conviction that the government needs another political coordinator.”

Bornhausen, one of Collor’s most respected aides, is a leader in the Liberal Front Party, the main pro-Collor bloc in Congress.

The Supreme Court ruling gives Collor what he wants most--time. He believes that much of the pro-impeachment sentiment in Congress will disappear once scheduled municipal elections are held Oct. 3. Supporters of the president say that many pro-Collor deputies will vote against him if impeachment comes to a vote before that date because they fear that public sentiment, running at more than 80% against Collor in recent polls, will hurt their allies running for municipal office.

Collor’s opponents were unfazed by Thursday’s high court decision.

“This really won’t change things much,” said Marcello Lavenere Machado, president of the Brazilian Bar Assn., one of two entities that formally petitioned Congress to impeach the president. “It only moves things back a few days.”