Friends turn on Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff.

AutorGaudin, Andres

After giving signs that seemed to indicate differences from the marked tendencies of her predecessor former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff finished her sixth month in office with two stinging defeats, a distancing by some of her principal social allies, and strong signals from political associates that they were unwilling to support certain essential aspects of the platform that helped her win the October 2010 election. Against this backdrop, five activists from the campesino movement that opposes deforestation of the Amazonia were murdered.

Before that, Rousseff had made two important decisions. She had changed Brazil's longstanding vote at the UN regarding Iran--joining calls for an investigation of that country's human rights situation--and she had announced her support for creating a truth commission (Comissao da Verdade) to investigate events related to state terrorism during the 1965-1985 dictatorship NotiSur, May 27, 2011. The two issues had been left pending by the Lula administration.

The two defeats came at the hands of members of her heterogeneous coalition. In one, the lower house passed changes to the Codigo Florestal that eliminate regulations on deforestation in the Amazonia. In the other, the religious bloc in Congress stopped distribution of education materials aimed at combatting discrimination against homosexuals.

Those who have warned the president that they would no longer support her unless she honored her campaign promises were the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores (CUT), umbrella organizations for the indigenous communities, and various environmental organizations.

Finally, the Partido do Movimento Democratico Brasileiro (PMDB)--to which Vice President Michel Temer and Senate president (and former Brazil President) Jose Sarney (1985-1990) belong--announced that it would not support either the human rights policies that she had announced or her decision to open the archives of the country's recent history.

Five environmentalists killed

A few hours before deputies passed the change to the Codigo Florestal on May 24, the bullet-riddled bodies of two campesino leaders--Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espirito Santo--were found in the Amazonian state of Para. The couple had systematically denounced the large landowners who had cleared a large swathe of native forest to make charcoal and then use the devastated forest land to plant soy. In subsequent days, and in...

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