WHAT’S THE STORY?

BRAZIL is engulfed in a new political crisis with demand growing for the impeachment of President Michel Temer who took over last year from disgraced Dilma Rousseff.

The country has been rocked by reports of a secret recording of Temer discussing pay-offs to buy the silence of a jailed political associate.

Protestors have taken to the streets while opposition parties have called for impeachment proceedings to begin against Temer who denies all wrong-doing.

The allegations have left the country in turmoil and threaten government reforms aimed at pulling Brazil out of its deep recession.

Even before this latest scandal, the government was already in crisis with three of Temer’s ministers forced to stand down and eight others implicated in the so-called Car Wash corruption saga.

It is the first time Temer has been linked directly to the shady dealings and analysts believe this could be a massive game changer for a president whose approval rating is already at rock bottom.

Workers across the country took part in a recent general strike in protest at Temer’s austerity policies and plans for radical changes to environmental and labour laws as well as pensions.

HOW SERIOUS IS THIS?

MILITARY police have been deployed around the presidential palace while the Supreme Court has called for calm.

Opposition leader Alessandro Molon is one of many demanding the president’s impeachment.

“They don’t change anything, they don’t learn anything — they keep asking for bribes,” he said. “They have to be removed, and Brazil has to have new elections.”

The unrest broke out after one of the country’s biggest newspapers, O Globo, reported that Temer had been secretly recorded approving a hush payment to his ex-deputy Eduardo Cunho, who was instrumental in the impeachment of Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president.

The newspaper said the recording was handed over to prosecutors as part of a plea bargain by Wesley and Joesley Batista who run the country’s meat packing giant, JBS.

The tapes allegedly not only incriminate Temer but also one of his most powerful allies, senator and former presidential candidate Aecio Neves, of the centre-right Brazil Social Democratic Party.

O Globo said he asked for £50 million from a JBS executive to pay for a lawyer defending him in the Car Wash investigations. Neves denies the claim but police have raided his apartment.

WHAT DO THE TAPES SAY?

ALONG with Temer, Cunha belongs to the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party and has indicated he knows his former colleagues’ secrets.

In the alleged recording Joesley Batista says he has been handing over hush money to Cunha. Temer then apparently tells Batista he has to keep up the payments. The paper also claims police have video and audio evidence that an aide of Temer called Rocha Loures negotiated payments of £120,000 a week for 20 years in exchange for helping the meat company overcome an issue with the fair trade office.

The presidential office has denied the allegations.

“President Michel Temer never requested payments to obtain the silence of ex-deputy Eduardo Cunha,” said the press office. “The president defends a deep and wide investigation to get to the bottom of the claims put forward in the media.”

WHY HAS THIS HAPPENED?

THE alleged plea bargain has arisen out of a major graft probe involving the national oil company, Petrobas.

The investigation has ensnared high profile business executives and dozens of leading politicians, including Rousseff. She was forced to step down last August for apparently breaking budget laws by tinkering with the accounts to minimise the size of the deficit but claims that Temer and Cunha were “chief and vice chief of a coup” against her.

Although a board member of Petrobas from 2003 until 2010, Rousseff has not been accused formally of self-enrichment or corruption. The probe began during her presidency and supporters in her Workers’ Party claim her rivals ousted her because she would not protect them from investigation.

However her image suffered as close allies were caught up in the investigation, including her political mentor and predecessor as president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He is on trial for corruption.

Cunha was given a 15 year jail sentence in March after being found guilty of money laundering, corruption and tax evasion. He is the highest profile politician so far to be convicted in the three year probe which is investigating bribes paid by company chiefs to politicians in exchange for deals with the state oil giant.

WHO ELSE IS INVOLVED?

ONE month ago, the investigators released a list of politicians under suspicion, including nearly one third of Temer’s cabinet. This came after nearly 100 executives from Odebrecht, the largest construction conglomerate in Latin America, agreed plea deals of more lenient sentences in exchange for information.

The Brazilian-based business has admitted bribing officials to secure contracts not only in Brazil but in other parts of Latin America and has accepted a fine of £2.8 billion. Former chief executive Marcelo Odebrecht has been jailed for 19 years for corruption after being found guilty of paying more than £21m in bribes to executives of Petrobas in exchange for influence and contracts. One of the biggest employers in Brazil, Petrobas has around 80,000 workers. Several executives have been given lengthy jail sentences for corruption.

Meanwhile, the latest scandal has sent the value of the country’s assets tumbling. Even if nothing is proved against Temer, Brazil faces more uncertainty because of an investigation into irregularities during the 2014 presidential election. If the electoral court takes the unprecedented decision to nullify the vote, Congress will have to elect a new president within 30 days.