Collor’s impeachment, prompted by charges that he was profiting from a massive corruption scheme, marks the first time in Latin America’s coup-ridden history that a head of state has been removed from power before his term was finished by thoroughly constitutional means. Even as corruption crises threaten democracy elsewhere-Peru’s Alberto Fujimori disbanded Congress in April, Venezuela’s Carlos Andres Perez barely survived a coup attempt in February–“Collorgate” fortified Brazil’s civil institutions. “Our history has been to find solutions to serious crises by way of coups d’etat,” says political-risk analyst Walder de Goes. “From the beginning of the investigation to the impeachment, this has been a process of building democracy.”
It was a short trip to the Temple of Doom. And what drove him there was not just corruption charges but the resurgence of Brazil’s civil society-the press, the student movement and, surprisingly, two of the country’s most discredited institutions: Congress and the judiciary. Congressional investigators examined more than 40,000 canceled cheeks and 100 hours of testimony to piece together a detailed picture of corruption. According to the panel, the scheme-allegedly masterminded by Collor’s former campaign fund raiser-skimmed at least $32 million from state contracts, of which $6.5 million allegedly went to Collor. “The scheme was gigantic, greedy, without limits,” says Collor’s former right-hand man, Renan Calheiros.
Despite reports that he had given his wife a $20,000 monthly allowance and installed an elaborate, $2.5 million garden behind his house, Collor would not admit even the slightest misdeed. His arrogance cost him. When he asked Brazilians to don green and gold and take to the streets for a day of patriotism last August, people did jam the streets-but they dressed in black, for a day of mourning. They carried coffins for the moribund government and effigies of Collor in prison stripes. From that day Brazil’s civil society was reborn. Intellectuals, lawyers and merchants banded together to form the Movement for Ethics in Politics. Long-apathetic students led protests in more than a dozen cities. A week before the impeachment vote, more than 500,000 marchers flooded the center of Sao Paulo to demand Collor’s ouster. Legislators listened. Congress’s pro-impeachment committee reported that the crescendo of street protests pushed 81 wavering federal deputies off the fence. The final avalanche of votes, 441-38, suspended Collor from office and virtually ensured he would be formally impeached in the Senate trial now underway. General prosecutor Aristides Junqueira said he will also press Collor on criminal charges.
For many Brazilians it was the first time in their lives that corruption was not rewarded, white-collar privilege not protected. “The law never applied to them, only to us,” said Fatima Texeira, a trash collector cleaning up outside Congress the day after the vote. “Maybe now it does.” The new political territory has its risks. Power was to shift from Collor to Vice President Itamar Franco, reportedly honest but quirky. There were disputes over everything, from how to transfer power to whom to appoint to cabinet posts; within 24 hours of the vote there were signs the caretaker government will have difficulty staying together. Franco also must deal with social crises, such as Saturday’s riot in Sao Paulo’s Carandiru Prison, in which at least 111 inmates died. Sen. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, newly appointed foreign minister, was hopeful. “This whole process is the fruit not just of the political opposition, but of society as a whole,” he said. “Brazilian society has brought a whole new energy to government.” It will take more than energy to find democratic solutions to the problems of the autocratic past.
