Suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor and ally, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, plan to boycott the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics, officials said on Tuesday.
Their absence at the ceremony on Friday next week highlights the political crisis in Brazil, with Rousseff facing possible removal from office in an impeachment trial shortly after the Games end. Lula, who as president was instrumental in Rio’s winning bid for the Games, faces serious corruption allegations.
“She will not go,” said a source from Rousseff’s office at the Alvorada Palace residency in Brasilia.
“Lula will not go,” said Jose Chrispiniano, a spokesman at the Lula Institute in Sao Paulo.
Rousseff, who was first elected in 2010, is on trial in Brazil’s Senate on allegations of breaking government budget laws. A judgement vote is scheduled for late next month, which could see her removed from her post.
Rousseff said the impeachment process is a coup in disguise mounted by then-Brazilian vice president Michel Temer, who has been acting president ever since Rousseff’s suspension in May.
If she is removed permanently, Temer would retain the presidency until 2018.
Temer is expected to preside over the Games as Brazil’s leader.
On Monday, Rousseff said in an interview with French radio RFI that she would refuse to attend the opening ceremony with anything less than presidential status.
“I do not intend to take a secondary role in the Games in Rio,” she said.
Estadao newspaper reported that the invitation to Rousseff is similar to that sent out to several former Brazilian presidents, including Lula, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Fernando Collor de Mello and Jose Sarney.
Lula, who founded the Workers’ Party and eased Rousseff to power after serving two presidential terms, was a key player in Rio’s successful 2009 bid to stage the Olympics, the first ever in South America.
While Rousseff faces ejection from office, Lula is also struggling against serious corruption allegations related to a vast embezzlement conspiracy at state oil company Petrobras.
When Rio won the Olympics, it was seen as the icing on the cake of a Lula presidency lauded around the world for using a commodities-
fueled economic boom to lift millions of people out of severe poverty.
“The Olympic Games will give confidence to the Brazilian people,” Lula said on Oct. 2, 2009, in a tearful victory speech after winning the Games.
The political crisis, accompanied by a severe recession and the shockwaves of the Petrobras corruption scandal have left Brazil in a dark mood with less than two weeks to go until the Games begin.
A recent Datafolha poll found that 50 percent of Brazilians oppose hosting the Olympics, with 63 percent predicting that the event would bring more bad than good.
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