Lula party fights Cuba cash claim

Lula party fights Cuba cash claim
Brazil's governing Workers' Party says it will sue a magazine for
reporting that Cuba helped to finance the 2002 electoral campaign of the
president.

The leading weekly Veja said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's
campaign received up to $3m through a diplomat.

Opposition figures said they would call for an investigation. The Cuban
and Brazilian governments deny the report.

The row comes as Lula faces a major scandal over bribery, which is
alleged to have taken place in Congress.

The president has not been linked to the congressional corruption scandal.

'Elite plot'

Lula won the election in October 2002 and is an old friend of Cuban
President Fidel Castro.

The report in the news magazine said Lula's electoral committee received
the campaign funds that September and October, through a former diplomat
identified as Sergio Cervantes.

The alleged donation would be a violation of Brazil's electoral law.

Senior opposition figures said the allegations were very serious and
needed to be investigated.

"Lula and the PT have surpassed all limits," Congressman Jose Carlos
Aleluia of the Liberal Front Party (PFL) was quoted by Reuters as saying
on the party website.

Some revived suggestions that President Lula might have to be impeached.

But the PT (Workers Party) called the report part of a plot by Brazil's
elites.

"The magazine is a pamphlet for the PSDB (Social Democrats) and the
PFL," PT President Ricardo Berzoini was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The magazine did not provide evidence and issued the report based on
interviews with former aides of the finance minister, the Associated
Press reports.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4394872.stm

Published: 2005/11/01 03:08:40 GMT

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