Government reels from corruption probes
The scandal shook the core of President Michel Temer's already deeply unpopular government and his allies in Congress.
Brazil's President Michel Temer delivers a speech in Rio de Janeiro on April 4, 2017
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The scandal, likened by Brazilian commentators to a political earthquake or bomb, shook the core of President Michel Temer's already deeply unpopular government and his allies in Congress.
More than 40 deputies in the lower house were also targeted in the list of politicians who are suspected of participating in a huge bribes and embezzlement scandal.
The legislature rapidly emptied late Tuesday when the news broke as lawmakers avoided the media.
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The empty chambers symbolized the problems that Temer may now have in maintaining his close working relationship with Congress as he tries to enact pension reform and other austerity measures aimed at dragging Brazil out of a historic recession.
The presidency played down the crisis, saying that it had already received warning via numerous media leaks that the deluge of probes was coming.
"There are no new facts and the names had already been mentioned. The government will keep working. Now it is a question of each individual minister defending himself," a source at the presidency, who asked not to be identified, told AFP.
However, political analyst David Fleischer at the University of Brasilia said Temer is in trouble.
"He will be even weaker and perhaps will lose control of his support base in Congress where many are desperate and are eying their chances of reelection in 2018," he said.
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"This episode will delay and complicate approval of reforms," with investors backing off for a "wait and see" period, Fleischer said.
Third of government probed
All the politicians are suspected of involvement in a massive embezzlement and bribery conspiracy that fleeced state oil company Petrobras and funneled dirty money into leading political parties' election war chests.
The so-called Car Wash investigation has already been running three years. But the latest wave of allegations -- which are not formal charges -- stem from recent testimony in plea deals by 77 executives at Odebrecht, the construction company at the heart of the scandal.
About a third of Temer's cabinet is targeted. Eight ministers will be investigated and possibly a ninth, according to court documents.
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The list includes the president's chief of staff Eliseu Padilha and the ministers of foreign affairs and agriculture, as well as the speakers of both the lower and upper houses of Congress.
The probes further discredit Temer's ruling PMDB party, with its senior senator Romero Juca, among those on the list.
Also targeted is Aecio Neves, who heads the centrist PSDB party and narrowly lost Brazil's last presidential election.
Another prominent name is Eduardo Paes, who was mayor of Rio de Janeiro during last year's Olympics. He is alleged in plea bargain testimony to have taken some 15 million reais ($4.8 million) in bribes.
The former Odebrecht employees, including ex-CEO Marcelo Odebrecht, have confessed to systemic bribery of politicians in exchange for inflated contracts with Petrobras and favorable legislation in Congress. The money went either directly into politicians' pockets or into party campaign slush funds.
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Odebrecht paid so many big bribes to so many politicians, executives say, that they set up a company department to manage the money.
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