Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – A Brazilian newsmagazine published allegations over the weekend that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had received as much as $3 million in secret campaign donations from Cuban President Fidel Castro.
The alleged action would break Brazilian campaign laws that mandate the disclosure of campaign funds and prohibit politicians from receiving contributions from foreign sources.
The report in the newsmagazine Veja, one of the country’s most influential, dominated political debate Monday.
Da Silva and his Workers’ Party already have been fighting accusations that top officials in his administration funneled money to secret campaign accounts and bribed his rival legislators for votes.
Da Silva called the charges “fantasy,” and some in his party threatened legal action against the magazine, saying it had published false information.
“We need to deal with this not just politically but in the justice system,” Sen. Serys Slhessarenko said Monday on the floor of Congress. “The press has rules of behavior, and it’s important they be held accountable.”
Opposition legislators have promised to investigate the accusations, which the magazine based on interviews with two former aides to Finance Minister Antonio Palocci: Rogerio Buratti, who himself is fighting bribery charges, and financial consultant Vladimir Poleto.
The pair said they learned of the alleged Cuban donations from another former Palocci aide, Ralf Barquete, who died of cancer in June 2004.
In August, Buratti made waves after testifying before a congressional panel that Palocci had received bribes from a garbage company while serving as a provincial mayor.
Buratti’s source then was also Barquete, but Buratti never was able to prove the accusations.
According to the Veja story, the money arrived in the country’s capital, Brasilia, in 2002 by unidentified means.
Then the money was safeguarded by Cuban diplomat Sergio Cervantes, who since has returned to Cuba.
The Cuban embassy said in a statement late Saturday that “the government of Cuba categorically rejects these slanders and affirms that it has never interfered in the internal affairs of its sister nation.”
