RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian President Michel Temer on Thursday rejected calls for his resignation, saying he will fight allegations that he endorsed the paying of hush money to a former lawmaker jailed for corruption.
Even in this country weary from the constant drip of revelations of a wide-ranging corruption investigation, the incendiary accusation set off a firestorm and Brazil’s highest court opened an investigation. Stocks and the currency plunged and rumors circulated that Temer would step down.
Instead, the embattled leader remained defiant in a national address to respond to allegations he was recorded endorsing payments to former lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha. The existence and the contents of the recording were reported Wednesday night by the Globo newspaper.
“At no time did I authorize the paying of anyone,” Temer said emphatically, raising his voice and pounding his index finger against the podium. “I did not buy anybody’s silence.”
“I will not resign,” he said.
The Supreme Federal Tribunal opened an investigation into the accusations and lifted the seal on the recording. Globo then posted the nearly 39-minute recording, which is scratchy and often inaudible.
Even before the audio was released, Thursday began in a panic after Globo’s report.
Within 90 minutes of the opening, Brazil’s main Ibovespa stock index dropped 10 percent and trading was stopped for 30 minutes. Brazil’s currency, the real, lost 8 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar, according to the Central Bank’s closing figure. Congress canceled its sessions, including suspending work on legislation that Temer’s administration hopes will pull Latin America’s largest economy out of its worst recession in decades.
The pressure built against Temer throughout the day. There was talk that Cabinet ministers were considering quitting their posts, and the culture minister did step down by day’s end. Opposition politicians called for his impeachment. Two small allied parties pulled their support for Temer in Congress.
In the evening, a protest of several thousand people in Rio de Janeiro was broken up when men in masks threw objects at police, who responded with tear gas. In Sao Paulo, the nation’s largest city, hundreds of protesters gathered on a main avenue to demand Temer go.
Since its start three years ago, the “Car Wash” investigation into a kickback scheme at oil giant Petrobras has revealed a scale of corruption that has shocked even the most cynical Brazilians and put several top businessmen and politicians in jail. In recent months, the probe has moved closer to the president and his circle.
Globo also reported that Sen. Aecio Neves had been recorded asking Batista for $700,000 to pay for his defense in the “Car Wash” corruption probe.
On Thursday, police searched Neves’ Rio de Janeiro home and Brasilia office, and Brazil’s highest court suspended him from office. Neves, who nearly won the presidency in 2014 and planned to run again next year, has denied wrongdoing.
