On Monday, Brazil’s Planning Minister Romero Juca announced that he will step down in the wake of released tapes implicating him and former Petrobras subsidiary Transperto President Sergio Machado in plotting a coup against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, only weeks before impeachment proceedings against the country’s embattled president began.
The two officials discussed "changing" the government in order to "stop the bleeding" associated with the Car Wash Corruption probe, in which both Juca and Machado were implicated. The two believed that, with the ouster of President Rousseff and the formation of a Temer-led government, the possibility existed to reach a “national pact” to terminate the ongoing corruption probe.
The impeachment effort against the suspended President Rousseff is ongoing. Earlier this month, the country’s leader was suspended for 180 days pending a full impeachment trial, and power was transferred to interim leader Michel Temer, who looks to advance economic reforms including privatizing natural resources and severe austerity measures.
