Eis outro importante jornal, desta vez um jornal da região mais anti-esquerdista dos Estados Unidos, Miami, a defender Dilma Rousseff, e denunciar o impeachment como um instrumento político, que não deveria ser usado da forma como está sendo usado no Brasil.

Não é apenas um artigo de opinião de um colunista. É o editorial principal da publicação.

O artigo começa dando um conselho aos brasileiros: “aqui um conselho de um país que sabe um pouco sobre impeachment: tenham certeza que é sobre violações sérias, e não apenas política”.

Senadores, este recado é para vocês…

O jornal lembra que Bill Clinton sofreu um impeachment da Câmara dos Deputados, mas o processo foi derrubado no Senado.

A matéria enfatiza que Dilma Rousseff tem a ficha limpa, não está envolvida em nenhum escândalo, ao contrário de Eduardo Cunha, o deputado que presidiu a sessão do impeachment, e Michel Temer, o usurpador e traidor que pretende ocupar seu lugar.

Reparem como o artigo termina:

Para o exército de políticos sujos do Brasil, acusar um presidente fraco e impopular oferece uma distração fortuita de seus próprios crimes. Ele fornece um bode expiatório para matar a sede do público por justiça, fazendo um figurão [no caso, Dilma] assumir a culpa pelos problemas do país e deslocar o foco para longe de políticos corruptos.

Dilma pode ser culpado de má administração da economia, mas suas mãos estão limpas de corrupção.

Não há vencedores aqui, como não havia nenhum no imbróglio Clinton.

A única maneira do Brasil sair mais forte é o de continuar a contar com as instituições democráticas para julgar o crime e remover os legisladores corruptos do poder. As violações de Dilma, se verdadeiras, são graves, mas impeachment é arma grande demais para se usar para punir por meras questões contábeis.

Os brasileiros não devem ser enganados. O crime que deprimiu o país é o desvio de dinheiro público. Vão atrás dos bandidos, e deixem que os eleitores decidam nas urnas o destino dos políticos incompetentes.

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Quando a imprensa internacional, ao longo do processo de julgamento do impeachment, descobrir que as tais pedaladas fiscais não implicaram em nenhum gasto extra do governo, ela ficará ainda mais perplexa com o mau caratismo dos golpistas.

As “pedaladas” foram meros remanejamentos, permitidos e aprovados pelo Tribunal de Contas da União ao longo de toda sua história e, no caso de Dilma, foram realizados em prol de gastos sociais importantes, como verbas para hospitais universitários, concursos de juízes federais e bolsa família.

Quanto a sugerir que a decisão deveria se dar através das urnas, e não via impeachment, o Miami Herald se refere, naturalmente, ao calendário regular das eleições, ou seja, os brasileiros deveriam esperar 2018.

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Original:

MIAMI HERALD EDITORIAL BOARD

In Brazil, the real crime is corruption

President Rousseff hands are clean in graft scandal

As Brazil embarks on the wrenching process of possibly booting President Dilma Rousseff from office, here’s some advice from a country that knows something about impeachment: Make sure it’s about serious violations of law, not about politics.

There is, we hasten to say, no comparison between the charges or situations involving former President Bill Clinton, who was impeached by the House of Representatives almost 20 years ago but survived a trial in the Senate, and that of Ms. Rousseff.

He was accused of a dalliance with a White House intern and lying under oath about personal matters. She is accused of violating regulations regarding government finances, a budgetary trick designed to conceal a looming deficit.

On the face of it, these are two very different matters — except for the political impetus driving the impeachment process in both instances.

Mr. Clinton had indeed indulged in conduct that is beneath what’s expected of a president. But the Republicans who despised him never managed to convince a skeptical public that they had the country’s best interests at heart — as opposed to their own selfish political interests — or that Mr. Clinton’s actions were a big deal.

Similarly, Ms. Rousseff, by all accounts, did indeed play games with public finances. She wanted to enhance her prospects for reelection in 2014 and borrowed $11 billion from state banks to fund popular social programs designed to help the poor who make up her party’s base.

Whether this deserves impeachment is a question that has divided Brazil’s legal experts and constitutional scholars, and one that Brazil’s senators should ponder seriously as they prepare to vote this week on whether to hold an impeachment trial.

But the real issue behind this ruckus is not tricky bookkeeping by the president, but rather the corruption crisis engulfing Brazil. That is, indeed, a very big deal — an enormous corruption investigation that has snared some 50 politicians and a few business leaders. It’s left the political system in tatters.

Ms. Rousseff, as it happens, is one of the few ranking political leaders who is not accused of graft. But among those who are is Eduardo Cunha, the head of Brazil’s lower house, the man leading the impeachment drive. He’s being investigated for money laundering and taking bribes. Many of the accused, like him, are among the lawmakers deciding the president’s fate.

Then there’s Vice President Michel Temer, a widely disliked political figure who would replace Ms. Rousseff, at least during the Senate trial. Testimony implicates him and close allies in the graft scandal around Petrobras, the national oil company.

For Brazil’s army of dirty politicians, impeaching a weak and unpopular president offers a fortuitous distraction from their own crimes. It provides a scapegoat to quench the public’s thirst for justice, for a big name to take the fall for the country’s woes and shift the focus away from corrupt lawmakers.

Ms. Rousseff may be guilty of mismanaging the economy, but her hands are clean in the graft and corruption scandal.

There are no winners here, as there were none in the Clinton imbroglio.

The only way Brazil can emerge stronger is to continue to rely on democratic institutions to prosecute crime and to strip corrupt lawmakers of power. Ms. Rousseff’s violations, if proven true, are serious, but impeachment is a huge ax to wield for breaking the rules of budget management.

Brazilians should not be distracted. The crime that has brought their country low is thievery in office. Go after the crooks, and let voters decide the fate of incompetent politicians.

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