Contractors, politicians and bureaucrats in Dilma Rousseff's impeachment (Brazil)

Some authors, analyzing the Brazilian political and economic crisis that led to the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, pointed to republican actions (anti-corruption) of the former president that would have impacted the support of the parties of the so-called “centrão” (parliamentary super majority formed by physiological parties) to the ruling coalition. We seek to analyze these actions in depth using the cases of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Ministry of Transport and the state oil company Petrobras, focusing specifically on the relationship between political parties and the big contractors. We did this based on three categories of analysis: political and technical appointments of bureaucrats to public office, schemes between the legal and the illegal to undermine competition in public contracts, and bureaucratic and political circulation of contractors. We used the plea bargains and investigations within the scope of Car Wash Operation, triangulating testimonies and documents. The results indicate historical changes in the relationship between the State and contractors from 2012 onwards, which changed appointments, cartel operation and anti-competition schemes before the start of the Car Wash Operation. This impacted the collection of “centrão” parties and increased suspicion about Dilma Rousseff, who acted to disrupt the schemes between legal and illegal that historically took place in infrastructure works in Brazil.