speaking at a conference in Brasilia, the nation’s capital. (Brazil National Council of Justice / EPA)

He said the revelations undermine the government of Michel Temer, who was elected vice president in a cross-party alliance with Rousseff in 2014 and became acting president after the impeachment.


“This is a government that was essentially created because of a widespread protests against corruption,” Santoro said.

After taking over as president, Temer quickly installed a conservative administration that established a government far more conservative than even right-wing presidential candidates have proposed in recent elections.

He has made the economy his top priority, a move that has pleased international investors and political elites.

In a poll shortly before he took power, he was more unpopular than Rousseff, whose ratings plunged over the last two years as thecountry slid into its worst recession in decades.


Rousseff, who was never personally accused of corruption or charged with a criminal offense, continues to speak out against the impeachment, which she and many supporters equate to a coup d’etat.

Her trial has not been scheduled, but it must be completed within the 180-day period she has been suspended from office. If convicted, she will be permanently removed.

The leaked recordings dogging the new administration were created as part of a massive corruption investigation by federal police. Known as the Lava Jato, or Car Wash, the inquiry began in 2014 as an investigation into the state-owned Petrobras oil company and quickly came to engulf the political establishment.

Sergio Machado, a former head of a Petrobras subsidiary who recently negotiated a plea bargain, had