US 'Want to Get Rid of the Workers’ Party' in Brazil: Analyst

The United States' actions with the ongoing impeachment process in Brazil are similar to its role supporting the military coup in Honduras, a top U.S. analyst told the program Democracy Now!.

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"Well, I think it is—it is definitely a coup," said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted on Sunday to start impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. The day after the proceedings, Senator Aloysio Nunes of Brazil’s center-right PSDB party traveled to Washington for a number of closed-door meetings with various U.S. officials. One of them included Tom Shannon, the most influential person on Latin America in the U.S. State department. According to Weisbrot, Nunes’ meeting with Shannon indicates that the U.S. is okay with Brazil’s impeachment process.

“I think it shows what we already know: The United States really does want to get rid of the Workers’ Party and always has,” Weisbrot added.

Andrew Fishman, a reporter with The Intercept currently in Brazil, also told DemocracyNow! that Nunes traveling to Washington is very revealing. As one of the leading opponents of Rousseff’s government and the Workers’ Party, when Nunes became head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, one of his key objectives was to have closer ties with the U.S. The relationship between Brazil and the U.S. had been tarnished after it was discovered the NSA was spying on Brazilian industry, as well as President Rousseff.

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Vice President Temer, another opposition figure set to replace Rousseff if she gets suspended, had asked Nunes to go to Washington to reverse the negative image of the impeachment process in the international press.

“It’s basically a PR trip,” said Fishman.

Meanwhile, Russia declared that there ought to be no outside interference in Brazil. The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that it is concerned about the situation in the country, but is confident that a solution will take place from within the law, rather than external intervention.

Russia and Brazil have had years of strategic collaboration, particularly through BRICS.