Brazilian Chief Accused of Buying Votes : Corruption: Opponents say Collor is doling out pork-barrel perks in effort to head off impeachment.

In an all-out effort to avoid impeachment, President Fernando Collor de Mello is offering pork-barrel favors worth millions of dollars to pay off congressmen who stand by him, the press and his opponents charge.

The battle over impeachment has kept Brazil in a state of constant political crisis for more than three months. Now, some analysts predict that, if the lower house of Congress decides against impeachment, vote-buying charges will taint the decision and throw this nation of 150 million into an even deeper crisis.

“The president has created such a situation, such a climate, that if he wins, his victory will be seen as illegitimate by everyone,” said political scientist Amaury de Souza. “The situation will become less and less manageable.”

A showdown on impeachment in the 503-seat Chamber of Deputies could come as early as next week. Pro-impeachment forces said Wednesday that they have the two-thirds majority needed to win and send Collor, 43, to the Senate for a trial on corruption charges. He would be the first president impeached in Latin America’s largest country, where military intervention has been a more traditional way of resolving political crises.

There is nothing untraditional about pork-barrel politics in Brazil, and Collor seems to be going whole-hog to reward congressmen willing to defy overwhelming public opinion and vote against impeachment. Basilio Villani, a leading Collor ally in the Chamber of Deputies, reportedly has told how it works.

“A deputy friend comes in and says, for example, that a brother’s factory is having financial difficulties,” Basilio said in an interview, according to Folha de Sao Paulo. The newspaper said Villani told it that he would call the head of the government-owned Bank of Brazil and request funds for the factory. “If that’s a sin, I commit it,” he was quoted as saying. “But that’s what power is about.” Villani said later that he was misquoted.

A court order last week suspended Lafaiete Coutinho, president of the Bank of Brazil, on suspicion of misusing public funds.

Over the weekend, in response to an appeal by Coutinho, a higher court reinstated him at the government bank’s helm. But a government auditing tribunal is preparing a ruling on the legality of more than $19 million in grants allegedly made by Coutinho this year through the Bank of Brazil Foundation in response to requests from congressmen.

An example: Deputy Oswaldo Coelho, a Collor supporter, obtained a grant of $130,000 for drilling 200 water wells near the northeastern city of Petrolina, where his constituency is centered and where his son is mayor. Jose Alencar, the Bank of Brazil’s former superintendent for the northeastern state of Ceara, said this week that he was fired by Coutinho for refusing to allocate funds on a political basis.

Opposition politicians accuse the head of another government financial institution, the Caixa Economico Federal, of also using government funds in attempts to sway congressional votes against impeachment. Caixa President Alvaro Mendonca is known as a leading member of Collor’s “shock troop,” also called the “check troop.”

The top shock trooper is Ricardo Fiuza, Collor’s social action minister and political coordinator. In the past two months, at the request of friendly congressmen, Fiuza has signed agreements for the distribution of more than $70 million from his ministry to state and local governments and foundations, according to press reports.

Folha de Sao Paulo said Collor has agreed to veto a bill for agrarian reform in exchange for anti-impeachment votes by 90 to 100 deputies who represent the interests of rural land owners.