In the first of a series of videos looking at events in Brazil as the country gears up for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Elsa Buchanan speaks to Thiago de Aragão, a political analyst at Arko Advice, about the disastrous popularity ratings for the countrys president, Dilma Rousseff.
An internal poll this week showed that only 7% of voters think Rousseff, who represents the Workers Party in Brazils parliament, is doing a good job – a figure well below the 11% popularity rating Fernando Collor was enjoying when he was impeached in 1992.
Rousseff, who was re-elected in a bitterly fought run-off vote in 2014, is flying to the US on 30 June. She will meet with President Barack Obama in an attempt to improve ties between the companies and bring back positive news to a Brazil that has been shaken by a widening corruption scandal enveloping state oil giant Petrobras.
To make matters worse, Marcelo Odebrecht, the head of Latin Americas largest engineering and construction company Odebrecht SA, was arrested on 24 June after his family-run conglomerate was accused of spearheading a $2.1bn (£1.3bn) bribery scheme at Petrobras.
This is a huge step in the investigation that, in the eyes of some interpretors, could be a link between the business community and the Workers Party for its alleged corruption relationship, de Aragão told IBTimes UK.
