This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 002384 
 
SIPDIS 
 
TREASURY FOR PARODI; STATE PASS TO USTR AND USAID/LAC 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/09/2015 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON BR
SUBJECT: BRAZIL CORRUPTION SCANDAL UPDATE, WEEK OF 
SEPTEMBER 5-9, 2005: CHAMBER PRESIDENT HEADED FOR A FALL 
 
REF: A. BRASILIA 2219 
     ¶B. BRASILIA 2150 
     ¶C. BRASILIA 2082 
     ¶D. BRASILIA 2025 
     ¶E. BRASILIA 1979 
     ¶F. BRASILIA 1874 
     ¶G. BRASILIA 1973 
     ¶H. BRASILIA 1631 
     ¶I. BRASILIA 2242 
     ¶J. BRASILIA 2237 
     ¶K. BRASILIA 2305 
     ¶L. BRASILIA 2348 
     ¶M. BRASILIA 0767 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR DENNIS HEARNE. REASONS: 
1.4(B)(D). 
 
¶1. (SBU) President of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (U.S. 
House Speaker equivalent) Severino Cavalcanti is in  danger 
of removal from his position, as bribery allegations against 
him appearing in weekend newspapers became seemingly 
irrefutable this week in the face of testimony by witnesses 
and documentary evidence.  Sebastiao Buani, concession holder 
for a restaurant in a congressional annex in Brasilia, 
testified that he had been pressured over a course of years 
by Cavalcanti to pay him bribes in order to maintain a 
restaurant services contract with the congress.  Moving past 
earlier inconsistencies in his account, Buani stated publicly 
on 8 September that he had paid Cavalcanti up to reals 
120,000 (USD 50,000) between 2002-2005 in order to maintain 
his contract.  An employee of Buani's firm also confirmed the 
bribery account, and provided to the press an April 2002 
document signed by Cavalcanti on Chamber letterhead -- while 
Cavalcanti was a member of the Chamber's directorship table 
-- that awarded a three year contract to Buani. The document 
was authenticated by experts commissioned by newsmagazine 
Veja.  The document not only provides circumstantial evidence 
for the bribe allegation, but points up other illegal 
behavior on Cavalcanti's part, since he would not have had 
authority to award a multi-year contract absent public 
bidding procedures.  Buani also claims there is a signed 
check to Cavalcanti for one payment. 
 
¶2. (SBU) A broad and potent front of senior representatives 
from an array of parties -- the opposition PFL, PSDB, PV 
(Green) parties, but also elements of Lula's own PT and 
leftist parties -- are clamoring for Cavalcanti to step down 
from his post pending investigations, or for a plenary vote 
for his expulsion from congress. Cavalcanti, in New York for 
an international parliamentarians' event at the UN, has 
denied the allegations, but his refutals have been 
inconsistent and unconvincing. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Lula government's reaction is a wire walking 
act, reflecting the ambiguities of its relationship with 
Cavalcanti.   The GOB faced its largest congressional defeat 
ever in February when the obscure Cavalcanti was able to 
capitalize on GOB and PT ineptitude to win a surprise victory 
over the PT's candidate in the internal election for the 
Chamber presidency.  Cavalcanti alternately bated and 
supported the President early in the year, before becoming 
something of an unlikely ally over the past three-plus months 
of corruption scandals (refs) -- e.g., Cavalcanti has refused 
to acknowledge the existence of monthly bribes by the PT to 
congressmen implicated in the corruption scandals, and tried 
to slow-roll congressional investigations.  This odd, tacit 
alliance may have reached its bizarre zenith in recent days, 
when President Lula decorated Cavalcanti with the prestigeous 
Rio Branco Order before a stunned and silent audience of 
officials and media.  The GOB is neither defending nor 
attacking Cavalcanti, with spokesmen expressing to the press 
only Lula's concerns that investigations should proceed 
quickly to a resolution. 
 
¶4. (C) Comment. Severino Cavalcanti, an elderly career 
politico from Pernambuco variously seen as a "populist 
bumpkin,""clever tactician" (Brasilia 767) and/or corrupt 
operator, ascended to the Chamber presidency by an 
unprecedented political accident.  Since then he has been 
viewed by many as a retrograde symbol of the worst aspects of 
Brazil's traditional politics, suddenly and improbably back 
to haunt Brazilians' aspirations for a modernizing democracy. 
 His questionable suitability for President of the Chamber at 
precisely the moment that Brazil's worst political corruption 
scandals in recent memory are roiling the congress and his 
equivocal attitude toward punishing his implicated colleagues 
have exacerbated concerns about damage to the congress' 
institutional credibility.  Some in the media and political 
class have speculated about the possibility of Cavalcanti's 
name appearing in the lists of congressmen implicated in 
monthly pay-off schemes by the PT because he fits snugly into 
the profile of a suspect -- i.e., affiliation with a small, 
mercenary party (the PP), a relaxed approach to propriety, 
and a life history of political opportunism in the service of 
no coherent ideology other than re-election.   Further, his 
place in a succession scenario (Cavalcanti would be third in 
line) in the unlikely event of impeachment proceedings 
against Lula has been a prospect viewed by most Brazilians as 
both ludicrous and terrifying.  For these reasons, momentum 
was already developing in the legislature to seek 
Cavalcanti's removal, and the credible bribery allegations 
emerging this week provided an expeditious line of attack. 
But Cavalcanti may well go down fighting, lashing out and 
seeking to accuse others of wrongdoing, and thus sparking a 
free for all that risks a generalized denigration of the 
congress' authority at a time when Brazilians need to see 
their institutions functioning.  The congress will need to 
move both with dispatch and prudence to avoid such a melee, 
and have ready a replacement candidate who can command broad 
respect and provide a bridge between the legislative and 
executive branches that is sufficiently strong to provide 
modest potential for progress on key bills even amidst the 
continuing crisis. 
 
CHICOLA