Brazil: Threat by party leader causes row

www.upi.com By Carmen Gentile UPI Latin America Correspondent From the International Desk Published 2/5/2003 4:58 PM

SAO PAULO, Brazil, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- The leader of Brazil's ruling party is considering a public smear campaign as punishment for the senator that did not back the Workers' Party choice for Senate leader, touching off a feud among its ranks, Brazilian newspapers reported Wednesday.

Jose Genoino, president of the Workers' Party, or PT, said he might use an unspecified public warning condemning Sen. Heloisa Helena for not attending Saturday's session in which the Senate elected former Brazilian president, now senator, Jose Sarney as the upper house leader.

"Senator Heloisa Helena is irritating the PT by constantly criticizing the party's decisions," said Genoino, who didn't specify exactly how he would further criticize the senator.

The vote was part of a pre-arranged agreement between the PT leadership and Sarney's Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, whereby the PT would throw its support behind Sarney in exchange for PMDB votes in lower house presidential elections.

True to their word, the PMDB backed the pre-ordained PT choice for lower house president, Rep. Joao Paulo Cunha.

According to Genoino, the Helena's decision to not vote for Sarney went beyond defiance by a member of the PT's "radical faction," which has questioned some of the political maneuvers made by its leadership since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva assumed office on Jan. 1.

Mostly, the radicals have been critical of Lula's economic team, which has won the kudos of both local and foreign investors for not deviating from the free market policies implemented by former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

They insist that Minster of Finance Antonio Palocci and Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles have been far too conservative for the leftist PT.

The public condemnation of Helena is part of a strategy by the Lula administration to isolate the radicals and prompt them to toe the party line as it attempts to push its agenda of social reforms in Congress and pull Brazil out of its current economic slump.

The PT needs the support of the highly influential PMDB if it hopes to achieve any of its professed goals in the next four years. A further splintering of the PT would surely jeopardize Lula's agenda and undermine efforts at economic recovery.

Helena, however, defended her absence in Saturday's vote saying she has notified party leaders she would not attend the session and that her decision was a just one, as she could not support a "representative of the oligarchy," referring to Sarney.

"Every day I know that am not alone (in my decisions)," said Helena referring to her fellow PT radicals. "I have the conviction to help better this wonderful country."