Date: Tuesday, 29 Dec 1992 11:27:18 EST
From: <TPOWER@vma.cc.nd.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.brazil
Subject:    Collor renuncia 29.12.92

UPI Dec. 29, 1992
        BRASILIA, Brazil (UPI) -- President Fernando Collor de Mello announced
his resignation Tuesday, shortly before the Senate was to convene to
vote on his expulsion from office on corruption charges.
        The letter of resignation was presented to the Senate by Collor
attorney Jose de Moura Rocha.
        Collor, who took stern economic measures to move his country toward a
free-market economy, was replaced by his vice president earlier this
year when Congress decided there was enough evidence for impeachment
proceedings, but he refused to resign.
        Collor was accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes and
favors and allowing a businessman who helped him in his 1989
presidential campaign to use presidential connections for influence
peddling and graft.
        The scandal first broke out in late May when his younger brother
Pedro accused him of using businessman Paulo Cesar Farias as a frontman
for illegal business deals.
        Pedro claimed Farias, Collor's former campaign treasurer, was running
a massive tax fraud, influence peddling and extortion network with the
full knowledge and even blessing of the Brazilian president who was
publicly promising to attack corruption and open the economy up for
foreign investment.
        Collor responded within two days, gambling on his smooth, sincere
television presence to calmly refute charges, calling his sibling
deranged and claiming he had nothing to do with Farias since his
successful 1989 presidential campaign.
        The accusations died down long enough for Collor to successfully play
host to the Earth Summit that drew more than 120 heads of state to Rio
de Janeiro in June.
        But barely had British Prime Minister John Major and President Bush
left Brazil's famed, beach-lined city when the scandal erupted with new
furor, prompting a Senate inquiry into corruption that found evidence of
close, constant contact between Collor and Farias and indications of
wrongdoing.
        The findings, accompanied by massive street protests demanding
Collor's ouster, ended in Brazil's first impeachment ever on Sept. 29 in
a 44-38 vote in the nation's lower congressional house.
        Collor, holding his head up and snarling at reporters, was forced to
step down from his post Oct. 2 for up to six months during his Senate
trial and turn the government over to Vice President Itamar Franco, a
nationalist openly opposed to many of Collor's free-market economic
reforms.
        Collor, a former governor and heir to one of the richest families and
communications dynasties in the poor northeastern state of Alagoas,
spent the next 2 1/2 months meeting with lawyers, reportedly working on a
book and giving few interviews.
        In a meeting at his mansion earlier this month with a small group of
reporters, including United Press International, Collor continued to
maintain his innocence, saying the whole impeachment and trial was part
of a ``plot'' against him.
        ``I am a victim of a plot by those interests I obscured during my
government,'' Collor said, adding that he had ``the absolute conviction
and security of my innocence, that I have nothing to do with the
accusations I am charged with.''
        Though local media repeatedly predicted Collor was considering either
resigning or fleeing the country, the 43-year-old president remained in
his mansion in Brasilia, denying he would run from his trial. ``I am a
man tied to my land, to my roots and to the problems and concerns of the
population,'' he explained.
        The Senate originally was to have voted on Collor's fate on Dec. 22,
but Collor in a surprise move on the eve of the session dismissed his
two defense lawyers and said he would refuse to appear for his Senate
trial -- forcing the legislature to call a one-week postponement.
        The move, which Collor admitted was a delaying tactic aimed at
earning him ``more time to be judged with calmness in a just and
impartial way,'' was expected to be the last card played by a man who
has shown himself to be a shrewd player both during his 30-month
presidency and in the six months of his administration's disintegration.
        But Collor kept things going straight down to the wire Saturday when
he presented a court injunction in a bid to get 30 more days to allow
him and his new lawyer, Jose de Moura Rocha, to prepare their case.
        That attempt failed Monday and time ran out for the glamorous
president.
        At least 54 of the 81 senators would have to have agreed that Collor
is guilty of knowing about and benefitting from an alleged multimillion-
dollar corruption ring for him to be permanently ousted from power and
barred from holding public office for eight years.
        While the Senate trial could effectively cost him his presidency, the
Brazilian leader also faces criminal charges of passive corruption and
criminal association -- crimes punishable by up to eight years in prison,
as well as fines.
        But judicial analysts predict that, if convicted, Collor as a first-
time offender would probably be subject to a suspended sentence and a
fine.
        Whatever happens in Tuesday's vote, Collor has already made his way
into Brazil's history books. First it was as one of the youngest
presidents ever elected and as the first leader chosen by popular vote
in three decades.
        Then it was as the wonder boy who would pull Latin America's largest
nation out of economic crisis and changed it from a heavily state-
controlled economy to a free-market system.
        Now, it could be as the first leader in Latin America ever impeached
by both houses of Congress.