Death Threats Follow
Victory for LaRouche's Brazil Friend
by EIR StaffDr. Enéas Carneiro, the Brazilian Federal congressman who was elected in October with the highest vote count in the history of Brazil, went before millions of Sunday television viewers across Brazil on Nov. 17, to denounce mounting attempts to annul his historic victory, attempts which range from press smears to anonymous death threats against him and his associates. Dr. Enéas, who has previously been a Presidential candidate, and who invited U.S. Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche to Brazil for public meetings in June, won more than 1.5 million votes from the city of São Paulo in the national elections a month ago.
Dr. Enéas was interviewed on the program "Legal Sunday," by the well-known TV host Gugu Liberato. Accompanied by another leader of his PRONA party, Dr. Havanir Nimtz—a state legislator also elected with the highest vote count in the state of São Paulo—Dr. Enéas adamantly denied charges that his party, PRONA, had sold positions in various public offices to candidates, allegedly through the sale of electoral materials. That slander had been given national prominence just days before by the O Globo TV network, owned by the jet-set businessman who heads Prince Philip's World Wide Fund for Nature in Brazil, Roberto Marinho.
Responding to the distribution of a tape-recording which supposedly documents these accusations, Dr. Havanir declared: "There is no irregularity. These gentlemen are shamelessly and explicitly fabricating a situation. It is a clear and unequivocal persecution against us; they are afraid of our ascent, of our vote. They disagree. They want to take our places."
Attacks Aimed at Economic Policy Change
Dr. Enéas explained, reading from various published articles, that the slander campaign is due to the stunning rise of a group of patriots convinced of the necessity of a break with the world financial system, and with the International Monetary Fund. Dr. Enéas has insisted on the need to convoke a New Bretton Woods conference, to put an end to the bleeding of the nation, and he has publicly endorsed Lyndon LaRouche's campaign for such a global financial reform.
On June 12, 2002, Dr. Enéas and Dr. Nimtz invited LaRouche to São Paulo, Brazil, to participate in a ceremony at the City Council, where LaRouche was proclaimed an honorary citizen of São Paulo. On Oct. 6, Dr. Enéas' huge vote in the congressional elections amounted to nearly three times more than the second-highest vote total for any candidate. The combination of these two political developments has triggered palpable hysteria in the international financial oligarchy, which has mobilized to stop any possibility of a Brazilian break with the dying global financial system.
Dr. Enéas stated in the TV interview, "This is all an attempt to obscure, to diminish that gigantic force of one and a half million votes, the greatest vote in the history of the country. It's reported on the front page of the newspapers: 'The Candidate with the Highest Vote in the Country's History Charges for Electoral Posts.' I never charged for anything."
Reading from a story put out Oct. 8 by the Brazilian News Agency, the Congressman-elect explained the reason for the operation against him: " 'The expressive and historic vote for the physician Enéas Carneiro, for Federal Deputy in São Paulo, is a normal result for anyone who has been following the daily travails of the suffering Brazilian people, who are disillusioned by their previous and current politicians and rulers.' Full-time biased analysts," Enéas charged, "misinformed about national reality, and various radio and television announcers who are committed to political and ideological currents, say many stupid things, such as when they declare—in chorus—that Enéas's vote was a joke vote, or the vote of an impotent and ignorant electorate.
" 'The truth is,' " Dr. Enéas read from the News Agency wire, " 'that the 1,564,325 votes won by Enéas represent the desires and ideas of an important current of mature voters, who can be considered lucid and informed, and who are defending a nationalist program for dealing with the current fragility of Brazilian sovereignty, for confronting the foreign lust for the Amazon, for putting an end to the uncontrolled proliferation of criminality, and which offers a solution for ending the misery of the marginalized while also defending the most important cultural and social values of humanity.' "
Death Threats Described to National Audience
The champion Congressional vote-getter then gave the details of the campaign of intimidation, accompanied by steady slanders in the press. "In response to this reality," Dr. Enéas continued, "some very strange things began to occur. Telephone calls. One of our colleagues, Congressman-elect Irapuan Teixeira, received a telephone call saying, 'What's wrong with you? Why are you all involved in this?'—stated in a very vulgar way. That was followed by another threatening phone call: 'Look, gentlemen, it's better if you stop and get out now.' One day, a citizen arrives at the house of Dr. Irapuan, presenting himself as a justice official, violates his correspondence, and takes it from the mail box.
"Four armed men entered Dr. Havanir Nimtz's house," Enéas said, "but stole nothing; they only took the car and left it a few blocks away. Then they robbed the beach-house of her sister, which she hadn't visited for three years. Very strange. Finally, they called one of our colleagues and said: 'Listen, you all had better stop. Our client will do anything to make you stop.' Do anything presupposes physical elimination. That is, in itself, a death threat."
These incidents were presented to the Justice Minister. "We went to Justice Minister Paulo de Tarso Ramos Azevedo, to tell him that we are being harassed. One and a half million people believe in us, and see what is happening."
Intends to Fight for New Financial System
Dr. Havanir made a statement before the São Paulo Municipal Council, describing what is going on, but "the press wasn't interested in the matter," Dr. Enéas reported. "Several days passed ... [and someone] called her, saying that he had a tape and was going to give it to [the newspaper] O Globo, while demanding he be given a post. That's extortion, blackmail.... And then a journalist from the O Globo television network shows up at the headquarters of PRONA in São Paulo.... Why isn't everything reported? Why don't they say that we are victims of a hateful and shameful persecution?"
The Congressman-elect, a nationally known cardiologist and teacher of medical students, as well as a political party founder whose spirit has been tested before, made clear that he did not intend to be prevented from leading his new PRONA bloc in Congress, nor from fighting for the New Bretton Woods reform he believes essential to Brazil's survival.
"We are a group that will fight [in Congress] in favor of our country," Dr. Enéas insisted, "in favor of our fatherland, in favor of those who are hungry.... In fact, after His Excellency the President-elect [Workers Party leader "Lula" da Silva, also elected in October] takes office, our group will present him with a document of proposals, showing the direction our country must move in, if it is to stop the hemorrhaging it is suffering at the hands of the international financial system. This is something that worries and frightens those who don't accept reality."
