And we think politics in America are screwed up. Actually I
think giving guns to politicians and letting them kill each
other might not be such a bad idea.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (AP) - In Brazil, the rogues gallery
of Congress is large and diverse, by no legislator had been
accused of dismembering an enemy with a chain saw - until
now.
Hildebrando Pascoal, a first-term congressman from the
remote western Amazon stat os Acre, stand accused of a
staggering array of crimes, from torture and mass murder to
international drug trafficking.
The 513-member Chamber of Deputies decides today on whether
to expel him for "lack of decorum,' and the outcome of the vote
doesn't seem in doubt.
But the case has revived debate on a controversial law that
grants elected congressman immunity from criminal prosecution -
even for crimes committed before they took office.
"Drug trafficking, running extermination squads, murder in
the cruelest forms imaginable, robbery," said Rep. Laura
Carneiro, leader of a congressional inquiry investigating the
allegations against Pascoal. "Whatever you want, it's
there."
Expulsion from Congress "is hardly enough," said Rep. Magno
Malta. "He has to be arrested."
Pascoal has denied most of the accusations, claiming he is a
victim of political persecution. The Globonews TV network
reported he is seeking political asylum elsewhere in Latin
America or Europe.
On Tuesday, the congressional investigative committee called
for Pascoal to be taken into custody, along with 28 other
suspects, including his brother and two cousins.
Pascoal seems unlikely to be saved by the esprit de corps
among lawmakers that has spared many in the past.
Among them was Sen. Arnon de Mello, the father of impeached
President Fernando Collor de Mello. A Sugar baron from
Brazil's rough northeast, Mello shot and killed a colleague on
the Senate floor but was release when the shooting was ruled
accidental - he claimed to be aiming at someone else.
