From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: BRAZIL: ILLEGAL WIRE-TAPPING HELPED COLLOR WIN ELECTIONS
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 00:48:36 GMT

/** reg.samerica: 192.0 **/
** Topic: IPS:BRASIL-Collor used wiretapping **
** Written  8:05 pm  Nov  9, 1992 by jbinder in cdp:reg.samerica **
From: James Binder <jbinder>
Subject: IPS:BRASIL-Collor used wiretapping

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: BRAZIL: ILLEGAL WIRE-TAPPING HELPED COLLOR WIN ELECTIONS

rio de janeiro, 3 nov (ips) -- the illegal tapping of opponents'
telephones was one of the tools used by fernando collor to obtain
power in 1990, a lawyer who worked in his campaign disclosed
tuesday.

the revelation added a new element to the case of the
suspended brazilian president, now facing impeachment by the
senate on corruption charges.

the collor case is likened by many here to the 'watergate'
scandal, which caused the resignation of u.s. president richard
nixon in 1974.

during the second round of elections in december 1989, the
telephone of labour party (pt) candidate luis inacio ''lula'' da
silva was systematically tapped, lawyer octavio ramos told the
rio de janeiro daily  ''jornal de brasil.''

the telephones of other personalities, including the
provincial governor of rio de janeiro, leonel brizola, were also
tapped.

the spying operation was headed by leopoldo collor, the
suspended president's brother, according to the lawyer, who is a
militant of an ultra-right movement.

obtaining inside information on lula and his advisors and
knowing their plans were ''essential for the counter-information
work,'' he added.

ramos explained that right-wing groups used this information
to throw the pt campaign out of gear, just before and during the
election, by phoning in wrong instructions to the pt
coordinators.

moreover, the information they obtained by tapping pt phones
enabled them to discover lula's ''weak points'', and organize the
final offensive accordingly, thus securing collor's triumph.

one of the decisive blows was to bring lula's former fiancee,
miriam cordeiro, on television to attack the labour party
hopeful.

cordeiro has a daughter by lula, a fact which until then had
been concealed from the public. she charged that he had
unsuccessfully tried to pressure her into having an abortion, a
practice condemned by most of the population of this overwhelming
catholic country.

ramos confessed that the basic information for this 'weapon'
was picked up through the telephone tapping.

he said that other intimate information also helped to guide
the attacks by the collor camp.

the lawyer absolved himself of any responsibility for the
wire-tapping, a crime of growing importance in brazil.(more)
----


brazil: illegal (2)

according to ramos, the task was carried out by technicians
from the army's intelligence service.

''jornal de brasil'' stated that more information on the
clandestine telephone tapping operations during the 1989
campaigns would be revealed in a book that is being written by
collor's former spokesman and ex-cultural attache in lisbon,
claudio humerto rosa e silva.

rosa e silva had earlier denied admitting in his book
that collor's camp tapped lula's telephones.
(end/ips/tr/sp/mo/cs/ybh/kb/92)
----


** End of text from cdp:reg.samerica **

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