Brazil's Anti-Dilma Rouseff Protests, Right-Wing Investment Capital and Associated Stake-Holders: No Socialism in Brazil---Especially When Oil is at Stake!
Martha K. Huggins
I have been wondering why none of my "Brazilianist" colleagues--Scholars of Brazil, I've been one for 40 years--have failed to ask who is behind the protests against President Dilma and her Presidency? Given that "corruption" has been a constant in democratizing, post-military, Brazil (1985 to the present), I assume that corruption itself cannot be the primary cause of the protests and associated demands for President Dilma's impeachment. And why is there no analysis of how doggedly local, state, and the federal governments have pursued and even punished some very high- profile actors in corruption? My assumption (based on the US example) is that people in power will be corrupt if they can, and will be increasingly corrupt, if they get away with it. I applaud Brazil for impeaching one former president and for pursuing corruption relatively regularly at the local, state, and federal levels.
But I am less interested in "corruption" than in why academics and journalists who write about Brazil's current "crisis" have not asked, 'who is funding Brazil's national protests against President Dilma Rouseff and why'? The answers are that funding comes from very, very wealthy Capitalist stake-holders whose political reach and 'dark money' spans national and international boundaries. They are using their considerable influence and money to undermine the Rouseff government. Why are especially my academic colleagues 'shying away' from following the dark money behind Brazil's current crisis? Because we could, or already do, benefit at many of out academic institutions from the dark money currently being used to fuel protests against President Dilma Rouseff's government. She needs to be stopped from turning Brazil into another 'socialist' conquest, in order to strengthen international capital's position within a Brazilian political-economy that the big money stake holders consider a threat to their expansionist plans.
From the US, the Koch Brothers are actively funding right-wing attacks on President Dilma. Jorge Paulo Lemann, a Swiss-Brazilian, and the most wealthy man in the country, is an investor and 'beer Entrepreneur.' Ranked the 26th wealthiest person in the world and wealthiest man in Brazil, Jorge Lemann's Brazilian beer conglomerate (AmBev), which merged in 2004 with Interbrew (Belgium) and in 2008 with Anheuser-Busch (US), made Lemann the "King of Beer," a designation that apparently enhances Lemann's existing status as a highly successful investor. The latter includes heading a multi-billion dollar investment firm, founded by Lemann in 2004 with three other investors. 3G Capital partners, which collaborates with Berkshire Hathaway to carry out corporate acquisitions. With offices in New York City and Rio de Janeiro, 3G Capital is a powerful boundary-spanner in fostering its vision for Brazilian political life.
Jorge Lemann's, Fundacao Estudar--through which money for some anti-Dilma protesters flows-- provides educational scholarships for Brazilian and US students.Lehman has endowed student fellowships at US universities, including, Columbia University's Lemann Fellowship for "students with a deep interest in the overall advancement of Brazil," and likewise at Harvard, MIT, UCLA, and Oxford University (UK) among others. In a recent World Press Blog, the author maintained that the conservative forces behind getting President Dilma out of office include the Koch Brothers, Jorge Lehmann--a George Soros colleague, with Soros also funding some of the Anti-Dilma protests in Brazil. [1]
These stake-holders in Capitalism do not want Brazil "to become another Venezuela." Brazil's national oil company, Petrobras, "has been eyed for some time by [George] Soros and the Rothschild banking family for whom he fronts globally, as well as the anti-government, libertarian-bent Koch Brothers" [2]. "The right-wing participants in Brazil’s protests are linked directly with the Koch Brothers, particularly the group, 'Free Brazil Movement' (Movimento Brasil Livre – MBL). The group is also financed by Warren Buffett’s billionaire Brazilian partner [3], Jorge Paulo Lemann,."
In a recent Intercept article by Glen Greenwald [4], none of the above actors' funding of Brazil's anti-Dilma movement were even mentioned, even though Greenwald is respected for taking up tough political issues. Perhaps, Brazil's current situation interests me because I have seen it happen before. While Greenwald sees a relationship between Trump's candidacy in the US and the anti-Dilma movement in Brazil--both representing and reflecting a time of institutional crisis--I see the similarity in Brazil's pre-Golpe (before 1964) political climate.
Hopefully more on that later--if I have the time!
Why won't Brazilianists touch the international capital that is driving protests? Besides the funding that Lemann gives to US and UK universities for student fellowships, Brazil's richest citizen also endows academic institutes (Lemann Institute at U of Illinois, Urbana-Champlain), opportunities for faculty scholars at Columbia's "Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies," and endowed chairs at Lemann's alma mater, Harvard University, and Stanford's "Lemann Center."
References
1. see http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Are-the-Koch-Brothers-Behind-Brazils-Anti-Dilma-March-20150313-0001.html; see also #2 below
2. https://seeker401.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/soros-and-the-kochs-team-up-in-latin-american-staged-protests/
3. http://fortune.com/2015/03/25/3g-capital-heinz-kraft-buffett/; http://fortune.com/2015/03/25/3g-capital-heinz-kraft-buffett/
4.https://theintercept.com/2016/03/18/brazil-is-engulfed-by-ruling-class-corruption-and-a-dangerous-subversion-of-democracy/; http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/24/glenn_greenwald_brazils_democracy_is_under
e
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