LatinNews Daily Report - 20 April 2012

Brazil | CPI. On 19 April representatives voted to set up a parliamentary committee of enquiry (CPI) into the political links of the businessman Carlos Augusto Ramos (‘Carlinhos Cachoeira’), who is in prison on charges of running an illegal gambling/gaming hall mafia.  The federal house of deputies provided 337 signatures, and the senate 72, in favour of the CPI, well above the required minimum of 171 and 21 respectively. Senator Demóstenes Torres, of the right-wing opposition party Democrátas (DEM), quit the party on 11 April amid a mounting corruption scandal centred on his links to 'Carlinhos'. Torres is alleged to have lobbied on behalf of 'Carlinhos' to regularise illegal bingo pools and slot machines, in return for personal gain. The senator, along with the governor of Goiás, Marconi Perillo of the opposition Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, will be the subject of the new CPI, which should get underway in coming days. (Goiás is the state surrounding the federal district.) José Roberto Arruda’s successor in the federal district, Agnelo Queiroz of the federally ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), may also be implicated. The executive dreads these CPIs as they tend to polarise congress and delay the legislative agenda.

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