09/01/16 09/01/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! mr. trump: are you ready? are you ready? [cheers] alongl build a great wall the southern border. amy: in a major speech on immigration, donald trump repeats his call for building a massive border wall, creating a deportation force to target millions of immigrants, in his first hour as president, and suspend immigration from parts of the world. he spoke in arizona just after meeting with mexican president

enrique peña nieto in mexico city. we will go to phoenix and mexico city for response. then to brazil. >> they have just overthrown the first woman elected president of brazil without there being any constitutional justification for this impeachment. amy: in what many are describing as a coup, brazil's senate votes to oust dilma rousseff from office. we'll get the latest and then to san juan, puerto rico, where protests were held tuesday as president obama appoints seven members to a federal control board to run the finances of puerto rico's nearly bankrupt government. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in a major speech on immigration in phoenix, arizona, republican presidential nominee donald trump vowed to build a massive wall along the mexican border

and to begin deporting millions of immigrants as soon as he takes office if he is elected. he vowed to deport 2 million people within his first hour in office. trump has made the mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants one of the cornerstone proposals of his campaign. he spoke in phoenix just hours after meeting in mexico city with mexican president peña nieto. trump has sparked outrage among mexicans but calling them rapists and criminals. peña nieto has fiercely criticized trump in the past, once comparing him to adolf hitler and benito mussolini. trump was met by protesters both in phoenix and during his trip earlier in the day to mexico. in phoenix, activists gathered outside the phoenix convention center, carrying a massive inflated balloon of donald trump with a swastika on his jacket. the rally was dubbed "our culture trumps their hate," and featured mexican and indigenous dance performances. in mexico, activists gathered in downtown mexico city to protest trump's visit and his proposal

to build a wall across the entire length of the border. the u.s. already spends billions on border security every year. this is one of the mexican protesters. this like symbolizes the important stuff understand this is a collective liberation between the people of mexico, the people of latin america, africa, in the middle east. when trump comes here, he doesn't just come here putting people under the bus, putting the latin american and people -- mexican people come the same rhetoric will come back and that is a violence against muslims, mexicans, african, syrian refugees. we are all victims of this new form of white supremacy. it is important for us to understand that today when we protest this, we have to protest together as one because tomorrow, they will not differentiate between cultures.

there is are ready or border wall. that mainly affects the most marginalized of mexican society. instead of building programs and community -- amy: we will go to mexico city and to phoenix, arizona for more on trump's speech and his visit after headlines. trump's visit came the same day the phoenix city council voted to approve id cards for all phoenix residents, including people who are undocumented. the move follows similar initiatives in new york city and los angeles. in more campaign news, a leaked memo from 2015 shows a democratic congressional campaign committee staffer instructing democratic candidates on how to deal with black lives matter activists. the memo calls black lives matter a "radical movement" and tells candidates "don't offer support for concrete policy positions." the memo was posted online by guccifer 2.0, a hacker who has

claimed to be behind the hack of 20,000 dnc emails that were leaked by wikileaks in july. guccifer 2.0 says the memo came from house minority leader nancy pelosi's personal computer. pelosi's office has not commented on the memo. the brazilian senate has voted to impeach the country's democratically elected president dilma rousseff from office in what many are calling a coup by her right-wing political rivals. the vote was 61 to 20. rousseff's impeachment ends 13 years of the left-wing workers' party rule in brazil and brings to power president michel temer for the remaining two years of rousseff's term. temer is deeply unpopular and currently under investigation himself, accused of receiving illegal campaign contributions linked to the state oil company petrobras. the first direct commercial flight between the u.s. and cuba in more than 50 years touched down in santa clara, cuba, wednesday. jetblue flight 387 took off from fort lauderdale, florida.

also on wednesday, u.s. transportation secretary anthony foxx met with cuban foreign minister bruno rodriquez. the meeting and the flight were the latest step in the thawing ties between cuba and the united states. in yemen, a u.s.-backed saudi-led airstrike has killed at least 16 people when it struck the home of an imam in saada wednesday. local residents say the strike killed the imam's extended family, including at least one child. this comes as the u.n. humanitarian coordinator told the u.n. security council at least 10,000 civilians have died or been wounded in the 18-month conflict. last week, u.s. secretary of state john kerry traveled to saudi arabia and met with saudi foreign minister, where he urged a political solution to the war in yemen. the u.s. continues to supply saudi arabia with billions of dollars of weapons. these sales have reportedly included internationally banned cluster bombs, which are

designed to fan out over a wide area and often fail to explode, posing a massive risk to civilians. this comes as the u.s. weapons manufacturer textron systems has announced it will stop manufacturing cluster bombs, citing the "current political environment." human rights watch has documented textron systems's cluster bombs being used by saudi arabia in the war in yemen. textron's decision to stop making me -- making the munitions comes after years of pressure from activist groups, including from the cluster munition coalition. in kashmir, indian security forces have killed another teenage protester,18-year-old danish ahmad, who was shot to death by indian troops for throwing rocks at an army convoy. it's at least the 70th confirmed death in kashmir since anti-india protests erupted on july 8, after indian security forces killed a prominent kashmiri independence leader. hundreds more kashmir residents have been blinded by lead

pellets shot by indian security forces. doctors at the main hospital say they've seen at least 570 patients whose eyes have been mutilated by the lead pellets. ophthalmologists are calling the condition dead eyes. this is one of the patients, fayaz ahmad. >> we were a peaceful group of people who did not protest or take part in a procession when a group of police and central reserve fleets personnel approached us and started firing pellets and tear gas without asking any questions. at least 20 to 25 people were injured. we were taken to a local hospital from where we were referred to another hospital. on our way there, police and the central reserve police force personnel took us out of the ambulance and beat us up. amy: a divided supreme court has refused to reinstate parts of north carolina's restrictive voter id laws, which were blocked last month after a court ruled the measures discriminated against african americans and targeted them with almost surgical precision.

the 4-4 decision means up to 5% of the state's registered voters targeted by the law can now vote in the general election. in north dakota, eight people were arrested after two people locked themselves to heavy machinery to block construction of the $3.8 billion dakota access pipeline, which would carry 500,000 barrels of crude from the bakken oilfields of north dakota, through south dakota, iowa and into illinois. , it took the police hours to remove dale american horse, jr., who was locked to an excavator. meanwhile, 30 people were arrested in iowa in effort to block construction of the dakota access pipeline there. and in texas, members of the group anti-colonialists against billionaires say they poured superglue into the locks on the doors of the corporate offices of energy transfer partners in dallas before dawn on wednesday. two more universities have taken steps to remove confederate imagery and emblems from campus.

mississippi state university and the mississippi university for women both have decided to remove the mississippi state flag because it includes the confederate battle emblem in the upper left corner. in total seven mississippi , public universities have removed the state flag from their campuses, leaving only one, delta state university, still left flying the confederate flag within the mississippi flag. in chicago, police superintendent eddie johnson fire five moving to officers over the fatal shooting of 17-year-old african-american laquan mcdonald, who was shot 16 times october 2014 by white police officer jason van dyke. inspector general report issued two weeks ago i committed the chicago police department fire 10 officers. the superintendent johnson had previously said he would move to fire seven officers. now he says he is moving to fire five who are accused of lying

during the investigation of the shooting. vandyke has been charged with first-degree murder. and in pennsylvania, 22 immigrant mothers have resumed their hunger strike at the berks county residential center after suspending the strike for a week citing intimidation by ice , officials. the mothers first launched the strike on august 8 to protest department of homeland security secretary jeh johnson's claims that the average time in family detention is only 20 days. as of today, at least three families will have spent a full year in custody at the berks facility. this is margarita. year.are here for one -- struggling.ng sond so much time here, my with his idea around his neck.

i was worried about him if he was going to be ok. that it was just frustration erk. he has in burke -- b i don't think it is just mor frustration. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. in a major speech on immigration in phoenix, arizona, republican presidential nominee donald trump vowed to build a massive wall along the mexican border and to begin deporting millions of immigrants as soon as he takes office if elected in november. during a fiery speech, trump vowed to the port 2 million people within his first hours in office. mr. trump: we're going to triple the number of ice deportation officers. , i'm going to create

a new special deportation task force focused on identifying and quickly removing the most dangerous criminal, illegal immigrants in america who have evaded justice, just like hillary clinton has evaded justice. ok? maybe they will be able to deport her. amy: according to an analysis by "the washington post," trump's new deportation plan would target more than six million individuals for immediate removal. trump vowed there would be no amnesty and repeated his call for suspending immigration from parts of the world. mr. trump: i am going to create a new special deportation task force focused on identifying and quickly removing the most dangerous criminal illegal

immigrants in america who have evaded justice, just like hillary clinton has evaded justice. ok? juan: during a speech, donald trump attended to reach out to african american and latino voters. mr. trump: we need a system that serves our needs, not the needs of others. remember, under a top administration, it is called america first. remember that. to choose immigrants based on skill, andrit, proficiency. doesn't that sound nice? and to establish new immigration controls to boost wages and to ensure that open jobs are offered to american workers first, and that in particular

african-american and latino workers who are being shut out in this process so unfairly. and hillary clinton is going to do nothing for the african-american worker, the latino worker. she is going to do nothing. give me your votes, she says, on november 8, and then she will say, so long, see you in four years. that is what it is. juan: donald trump's speech in phoenix came just hours after he met in mexico city with mexican president enrique peña nieto who once compared trump to hitler and mussolini. trump and pena nieto spoke to reporters after the meeting. mr. trump: we did discuss the wall. we did not discuss payment of the wall. that will be for a later date. this was a very parliamentary meeting. i think it was excellent. i think we are very well on our

way. a lot of the things i said are very strong, but we have to be strong. we have to say what is happening. there is crime, a lot of crime, and a lot of problems. amy: mexican president peña trump'ster contradicted assertion that they did not discuss who would pay for the wall. peña nieto tweeted -- during his remarks, peña nieto challenged trump on a number of facts. he pointed out that undocumented immigration from mexico to the united states peaked 10 years ago. he also warned that mexico is facing a crisis because of what's being smuggled from the united states into mexico. of arms year, thousands and millions of dollars in cash into mexico in legally from the north, strengthening cartels and other criminal organizations that generate violence in mexico and obtain profits from the sale of drugs in the united states.

this flow must be stopped. amy: for more we are joined by , two guests. laura carlsen is director of the mexico city-based americas program of the center for international policy. and carlos garcia is the executive director of puente arizona, a grass-roots human-rights movement for migrant justice. we welcome you both to democracy now! let's to discredit logically. we will start in mexico city with laura carlsen. i want to play a clip of one of the protesters outside. he is beening changing his discourse because, first, in order to win votes in a society that is plagued with people who think like him, he's is a discourse of hate. wellhat he is not doing so in the numbers, he is trying to negotiate with the people he offended. how will this affect us? considering the mexicans are only useful as a source of cheap labor. this hate speech as something that as mexicans we cannot

allow. >> he is speaking with someone who hates mexicans, who calls us rapists and criminals. on the other hand, recently discovered many things about this figure who is going to speak with them, who is peña nieto. -- that is why we are scared of what can happen in the secret, private, enclosed meeting. >> the fact that peña nieto invited trump is an offense to all mexicans. it is an act of desperation, an act of ignorance for president who is already in decline. think his intention to construct a wall is very offensive. this physical division is just a representation of the geopolitical division and human relations. we know there are so many families separated for this migration criteria. amy: just some of the voices of protest outside the meeting between trump and the mexican president. laura carlsen, can you set the scene for us and your response to and what people's response

was to presidential candidates visit, particularly donald trump? >> this all happened very fast. the immediate response you're in mexico city and throughout mexico was at outrage. no one could understand why the president of mexico would invite not a statesman, but the candidate in a foreign election was actually the trailing candidate, and one who has made the centerpiece of his campaign anti-mexico and anti-mexican statements. not to statement's, but proposals that would have a dramatic negative effect on mexico. no one can understand why this was done. now that we have seen the results, it is even less understandable. there was immediate mobilization. you have the demonstrations in socialeets and networks buzzing with criticisms of trump, of course, but also very strong criticism against president peña nieto -- who

basically opened up this media opportunity for donald trump, which he used to the hilt. juan: even a former president fox had a blast on this -- issued a blast on this. do this, peña nieto was it because he himself has very low favorability ratings right now among the public. for thisly explanation lowomehow he did feel at a point in his approval ratings, as you mentioned, that if he came out and presented a position against trump or engaged in dialogues -- that was the justification the president gave, there was an engaging dialogue because they believe in dialogue, that it would somehow improve his standing. this was a terrible political calculation.

first of all, he did not come out strongly against trump's positions. there were moments in the presentation after their meeting in which he actually seemed to be justifying saying, well, mr. trump has been misinterpreted, or, we really believe -- almost purveyed him -- that is genuine interest are for the well-being of our people. donald trump went to mexico immediately and gave one of his most hate filled anti-mexican speeches in the history of this campaign. is now trying to do damage control. he recognizes that this was a historical error on his part, a political myth speculation would be an understatement, and he is trying to come out with a stronger position. publicly say he was against the wall. there is all this talk about who will pay for the wall, but what about -- that should not even

merit a response on the diplomatic level. mexico pay for u.s. wall to shut out mexicans? wallo one said, this should never be built. this wall is tantamount to an act of war in two economies and two nations as close as the u.s. and mexico. amy: let's turn to carlos garcia who was at the otherend when trump flew in his plane from mexico to phoenix where he gave this fiery speech. he certainly was not the -- what trump sounded like standing next to the mexican president. talk about the protest you have organized outside and then your response to what he said. >> hello, yes. was showingprotest our resilience, our culture. what we aim to to do yesterday was say, hey, we're here, we're

not going anywhere. i think what we heard from donald trump was nothing new. we have heard and is double down on the racism and bigotry that he spewed before. i think the risk now is there could've been some progressives who were watching this and maybe had seen some common sense in what donald trump was saying. i think the risk we are having now is speaking to the border as if a wall doesn't already exist. the wall -- the border is a death trap to people, indigenous rights are being trampled on those who live in those places. there is a risk now the deporter-in-chief, president obama who has deported close to 3 million people, now seems ok. ofyou hear the voice margarita on your headlines of the women who are detained in s, you realize it is not donald trump who put them there, but the current administration. i think president obama now

seeing the reality that president trump is a possibility, has a responsibility to decide whether he is going to hand over the keys to the biggest, baddest deportation machine ever created in this country to a person like donald trump, who specifically targeting scapegoating and almost inciting a race war within this country. juan: carlos, i want to ask you in terms of some of the stuff that trump said -- first of all, if you could comment on the warm-up speakers, especially joe arpaio. rudy giuliani who spoke, jeff sessions. before them, joe arpaio was on stage. he, of course, represents the millions of latinos across the country, the worst aspects of american policy at the local level, but also to trump's vow to immediately end the executive orders of president obama for both the dreamers as well as for their parents.

>> yes, so once again, what trump was saying is a reality for us here in arizona. sheriff arpaio has been in power since 1992 and has gone after our communities in the same ways that donald trump is speaking of doing -- timidity raids were he would flood in entire immigrant committed with his deputies, acting as immigration officers and the federal government working alongside with them. 1070 in the state of arizona continues to be legalized racial profiling. we continue to live in the conditions that trump is putting out there. i think there is the possibility that things could be worse. there is a possibility that donald trump comes in, takes away the deferred action, some of the small gains that were made by the immigrant rights movement. but i think, like we showed in our protest yesterday, we are not going to allow that to happen.

we are here. we are strong. we're organizing. our culture will prevail against this hatred. also in the headlines, or the city id that passed in the city of phoenix. the first probe migrant positive policy that we have seen in my lifetime in the state of arizona. trump seems to be rising, we are fighting and pushing to terror as's reign of we did the bigots before him. juan: trump without he would bring back the secure communities program of the federal government, the 287g program, that he would also cut off federal funds to any city that declares itself a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants. i mean, the litany of changes that he has vowed to institute

if you becomes president, i found astonishing last night. >> it is definitely astonishing to think he has gone back and done his homework and found, unfortunately, those programs from secure communities the 1990 six immigration laws pushed by bill clinton. i think there is a roadmap that has been put out there on how to get rid of us. it started with the 1996 laws. it was expanded by the war on terror, president bush, and now again a creation of the biggest deportation machine by this administration. the tools are there for donald trump to make this a reality. i think once again, it is not only on the voters or what the results are going to be in november, but the current administration has some responsibility to look at itself. how do they feel about having women and children in detention like the women you see at berks? how does a feel about handing over these tools of deportation to president trump?

, how do yougarcia explain arpaio's victory in the primary on tuesday? i mean, this is a man who, what, a federal judge is asking that our pile be prosecuted for contempt of court after u.s. district judge g murray snow found him intentionally violated very as orders rooted in racial profiling case. what is the response of the people of arizona? and also, this big push right now where you have anchors across spanish media who usually compete with each other altogether in a major ad campaign pushing latinos to vote, trying to get 100,000 votes -- people signed up by election day? >> we saw on the republican primaries, actually, more than 30% of the republican vote not support sheriff arpaio. this is a share of that is

facing criminal charges -- sheriff facing colonel charges. he could be arrested at any moment. he is terrorized are committed to for so long. there's an opportunity to take them out this november and to take him out in the conditions that we set forth. to make sure it is not only sheriff arpaio that a person who is being voted out or being removed from office, but the coulter, the terror, and the damage that he is created and are committed he that needs to go with them. there needs to be a new day and are committees are fighting to make that happen. we will be standing together, whether it is to push the communities to vote, whether it is to be on the streets to make sure the harm is not being brought to us, and continue to organize and push against the policies -- again, that trump is talking about, but are in reality, here in maricopa county with sheriff arpaio and the national deportation machine that already exist.

amy: quickly, laura carlsen, your view of trump's speech from mexico city, and you also just put out a report. >> trump gave a speech that seemed to reconcile some of his views by praising -- over-the-top praise for mexicans, but he did not change a single one of his decisions. all of which are not only offensive to mexico, but they are disastrous to mexico in to the united and states. when he went back to arizona, he began e andnded his speech with illegal alien criminals and painted a picture as of all crime in the united states were the responsibility of undocumented migrants to the united states. we are seeing this increase in this manipulation of fear and hatred in this campaign and peña nieto offered trump the opportunity to give a veneer of

legitimacy to these views when he received him here in mexico city. and that will go down in history as a dark day in mexico. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us, laura carlsen from mexico city, center for international policy. and carlos garcia, joining us from phoenix, with puente a rizona. brazil swornnt in in. many are calling it a coup. then we will talk about puerto rico. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: the brazilian senate has voted to impeach the country's democratically elected president dilma rousseff from office in what many are calling a coup by . the vote was 61 to 20. rousseff denounced the decision,

saying there's no constitutional justification for her impeachment. that just overthrown the first woman elected president of brazil without there being any constitutional justification for this impeachment. but the coup was not just carried out against me and my party or the allied parties to support me today. this was just the beginning. the coup is going to strike without distinction every progressive and democratic political organization. they think they have beaten us, but they are mistaken. i know we're all going to fight. , against them, the firmest, most tireless, and energetic opposition that a coup government can face. i repeat, there will be come against them, the most determined opposition that a coup government can face. this is not how the story ends.

i'm certainly destruction of this process by the coup d'etat is not final. we will return just to satisfy our desires or once. we will return. we will return to continue our journey toward a brazil where the people are sovereign. amy: that was ousted brazilian president dilma rousseff speaking shortly after brazil's senate voted to remove her from office. in an unexpected twist, the senators voted 42-36 to allow rousseff to maintain her political rights, meaning she can continue to stand in elections and hold public office in the future. irate opposition senators vowed to appeal to the supreme court to reverse the decision. juan: dilma rousseff's impeachment ends 13 years of the left-wing workers' party rule in brazil and brings to power president michel temer for the remaining two years of her term. temer is deeply unpopular and currently under investigation

himself, accused of receiving illegal campaign contributions linked to the state oil company petrobras. on wednesday, temer addressed the nation in a recorded television speech. >> i assume the presidency of brazil after a democratic and transparent decision by the national congress. the time is one of hope and of resuming constants in brazil. the uncertainty has come to an end. it is time to unite the country and put national interests above the interest of specific groups. a makeup venezuela and ecuador denounced the removal of dilma rousseff and recalled their ambassadors to brazil. and massive protests continue to rock sao paulo for a third day. for more we're joined now by , james green, professor of brazilian history and culture at brown university. professor green is the author of several books including, "we cannot remain silent: opposition to the brazilian military dictatorship in the united states." james green, welcome to democracy now!

what about the significance of the ouster of the first woman president of brazil of dilma rousseff? >> it is part of a five way plan that has been articulated by sectors of the opposition. first to eliminate the president from her office, then to find a way to make presidentlula ineligible for the presidency. then to install manually -- in economic policy, to diminish and illuminate all of the social programs that have been established in the last 13 years and finally to turn back some of the progressive social measures that have been fought for by the lgbtq community, women, and the black movement in brazil. juan: when you say there was a plan, clearly, this has only been made possible by the fact that the workers party lost the ofority in the legislature brazil. how did that happen?

how did it lose control of the overall governments? has 35% of generally the electoral support. it has to build a coalition in order to govern. aboutilma was elected by three point 5% margin as last time, the opposition immediately decided to carry out the same tactic republicans carried out when obama was elected, basically to instruct everything she was doing at the same time, mobilize in the streets against her using corruption, investigation, scandals as a motivating force in that regard. removeas then a move to from this bigger of the house from the lower house of congress, the chamber of deputies, from office. when the workers party refused to support him and actually voted against him in the ethics committee, he then mobilized his forces within a coalition that supported lula and dilma to

reverse their decision and support temer and the opposition. there was a conjunction of both traditional forces who were against the electoral outcomes of 2014 combined with those forces in congress who were very afraid that the car wash investigations would actually end in jailing many of the leading politicians of the country. amy: so they needed her out. >> they needed her out and this has been documented by some tapes recorded a politician speaking about the situation. she has not been involved in any corruption. she is impeccable. she will return to a humble two-bedroom apartment when she flies back to her hometown. she has not been implicated in any of the corruption scandals. amy: she had a powerful quote or she said this is the second coup a face in my life, the first, supported by weapons of oppression and torture struck me as a young militant. she was jailed and tortured. this one they called the second

coup. you write a lot about u.s. brazilian relationships. what was the u.s. involvement? and right back to that first coup that led to her jailing. there's no question about u.s. involvement in supporting the up in 19, stti i 1962, e s. aassado through the cia funding $5 in fundso supporthe gubernatorial candidate set opposed the current president. in 1963-1964, the military attache was involved in building alliances with the brazilian military and gave them the green light saying if they overthrow the democratically elected government that the u.s. would support them and johnson, the day after the coup, endorsed the new government in power. there's no question about that. exactly to what extent the u.s. government is involved in supporting the opposition of dilma rousseff.

at one point they publicly remained neutral and said they would not allow the democratic -- they would allow the democratic process to go forward. president-elect, potentially president-elect clinton is close which is nowtion in power. i don't think there will necessarily be an antagonist in between the u.s. government -- amy: what is her relationship? >> bill and hill are clinton are close friends with the former president cardoza who has spent time at the presidential library. they respect each other as kind of moderate social democrats in their own context within their own countries. and i think the new government in power will encourage much more foreign investment, the nationalization of the key industries that are state owned at this point, including expanding opportunities for foreign companies to get contracts for oil expiration. juan: what did the workers party have done differently over the last two years to prevent

something like this from happening? clearly, dilma rousseff is not accused of any personal corruption, but there have been issues of corruption within other members of the workers party. and also, the importance of lula at this point. you made the point they are fearful of lula running again in 2018 and likely winning reelection again, so they're looking to find ways to stop him. >> lula has the highest election result speculation, but also a very high disapproval rating in the country. it is not clear he would necessarily be elected, but he is very popular among people because of the social programs he implement it and what he represents as a working-class person being elected to the country's presidency. on the other hand, the workers party made a compromise when it came to power. congress. the lieutenants of lou lowe were involved in what was called a vote buying, basically giving

stipends to members of the coalition party to vote with them in power, and this was revealed and many people involved in that were jailed. this tarnished lula, but did not destroy him. he was reelected in 2006. over time, the workers party more and more became part of a corrupt political system collaborating, participating in it and members of the workers party in fact have been indicted and some have been condemned for dishonesty and government. having not been able to distinguish themselves from politicians, they lost a lot of legitimacy. when the corruption scandals came out about backing the petrobras state oil company, this result in a loss of tremendous popular support for the workers party. the other thing they did that i think was a serious mistake, building an alliance with the evangelical christians. there are 20% to 25% who are evangelical christians. they have a very conservative social agenda. some were part of this electoral coalition and in conceding to

them, they conceded to their enemies. amy: you interviewed dilma 2.5 years ago. as we wrap up, can you talk about your -- >> i interviewed her in june for two and half hours. it was amazing because there is a very iconic picture of dilma rousseff when she was taken a trial in 1970 where she is sitting erect, facing her judges and the judges are hiding their faces because they do not want to be seen. she is a woman with tremendous dignity. she told me she is not afraid of things. that might be a weakness of hers, but she is willing to confront this. i think she left the presidential palace with dignity. she will continue as a way to be part of the opposition of the current government and fight for social justice. she was arrested and tortured and suffered much for fighting for social justice for brazil and will continue to do so today. amy: will be corruption investigations continue? >> they have opened up pandora's box. most of the leading politicians in the current government have

charges against them or are surrounded by people who do. whether there is a standing of these investigations, we will have to see. amy: we want to thank you for being with us james green, , professor of brazilian history and culture at brown university. director of the brown-brazil initiative. professor green is the author of several books including, "we cannot remain silent: opposition to the brazilian military dictatorship in the united states." this is democracy now! we will be back in a minute. we will be talking about order rico. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: a shout out to the students from the ihp human rights program who have come to visit democracy now! and watch the broadcast. i'm amy goodman with juan

gonzalez. juan: president has appointed seven members to federal control board that will run the finances of puerto rico's nearly bankrupt government for at least the next five years and restructure nearly $70 billion in debt. the board is made up of three democrats and four republicans who will not only approve any budgets created by the island's politicians, but also attempt to negotiate with the island's many creditors. on wednesday, hundreds of protesters in puerto rico blocked a street in front of a hotel where bankers and business executives were gathering for a conference hosted by the puerto rico chamber of commerce. it was on the new premise of bill, congressional legislation passed to month ago. democracy now! correspondent juan carlos davila was there in san juan. >> the black and white flag of puerto rico has become a symbol of resistance, resistance against u.s. colonialism. this flag has been adopted by -- we should call

for a protest to shut down the first promesa comfort someone say morning. >> i'm a lawyer and communicator and an activist. i'm an organizer for the group promises are over. the reason we asserted to organize in puerto rico and this is a continuation of many other social movements is puerto rico is right now in a political and economic crisis. >> on wednesday morning, protesters faced the police as they attempted to block the entrance of the hilton where the chamber of commerce of puerto rico was expecting hundreds of businessmen and women to discuss the puerto rico oversight management and economic stability act. at this time and for your security, you must head to the

sidewalks now. >> my name is gabriel. we have been years and 6:00 a.m. blocking the entrances to the plaza hotel. this is the second warning they have given that they will remove us in order to protect the conference for the rich who live in making our lives precarious and making the lives of working people of this country precarious as well. we will stand firm here, blocking the entrances because this conference is not accepted. we're convinced the fiscal control board is not accepted and we're not going to accept it. carla.ame is we are managed to close the way to the participants in the first conference of promesa, to be held here in the hilton hotel. quite simply, we are block the passage. many of try to go through entrance, but we managed to gain territory and we are preventing their passage. eventually, puerto rican police officers escorted some of the participants into the hotel pass the protesters.

one spoke about what happened. we are here offering resistance at their bridge and front of the hotel for the first promesa. i'm seeing of the puerto rican police, specifically the special arrest unit, is protecting the people who are trying to enter the conference, violating the picket line of civil disobedience we have organized your outside the hotel. >> one of the participants of the first promesa conference who did not want to identify himself i name spoke to the press and expressed his disappointment. >> i came to see the promesa going on. i have made a great sacrifice to come here. i am not rich. i have worked hard and i have made a choice in my life to move away from my family to come here to try and create jobs, to

invest in puerto rico. >> eventually, he was escorted by the police into the event. evelyn, a lawyer justsenting the group served everyone. this means she just served everyone on this side of the fence, on the other side of the fence come on that side of the fence -- anyone who is standing here just got served to be in court in five minutes. >> despite a court citation, the protesters continued their action. challenging the court order as a build barricades to protect themselves from the increasingly hostile police forces. civil unions and civil society groups collaborated with the puerto rican youth to build a barricade. the police then provoked the protesters and the situation escalated.

amy: that report by juan carlos. to talk more about the situation in puerto rico in the financial control board whose members have just been maimed, we're joined by -- just been named, we're joined by saqib bhatti, director of the refund america project and a fellow at the roosevelt institute. he is co-author of a new report, "scooping and tossing puerto rico's future." juan, you just wrote a piece in the "new york daily news," about the control board. explain who was just chosen. juan: it has been two months and's congress passed a law, the fiscal law creating a control board, but obama and joe yesterday had not named seven members of the board because for the last two months there has been an enormous amount of behind the scenes jockeying and negotiations between the white house and the members of congress over who will be the members of this board, which will basically be running the island of order rico at least

for five, possibly 10 years. is a complicated group. it had to be four republicans that obama chose from a list provided by speaker ryan and majority leader mitch mcconnell of the senate, and then three that the democrats shows -- one from a list from nancy pelosi and another from a list from harry reid, the minority leader of the senate, and the president got to pick one of his own. because the was enormous pressure on the administration over the fact this was in a position of the control board, they agreed they would try to come together to at least have a majority of the seven members to be of puerto rican origin. what ended up happening was a convoluted situation to how you put these seven together. obama finally announced yesterday afternoon the members. they include two puerto ricans from the island, but both are conservative republicans named

by the republicans. the puerto ricans the obama administration named, who basically live in the u.s., one is a key aide to governor shorts an acre and to jerry brown -- governor schwarzenegger and jerry brown. who is is a puerto rican the president of the home loan bank, but also has ties to financial institutions here in the united states and was the director of -- and they chose also arthur gonzales, who is a cuban-american who was not well-known, but he was the chief judge of the u.s. bankruptcy court for the southern district of new york. so there are actually five latinos on the seven-member board. four of them are a puerto rican origin. it is still u.s.-imposed war.

in puerto rico, there is --rmous concern over how what this board will do to reduce living standards in puerto rico, to trim the budget as well as to renegotiate the debt. of course, wall street is most concerned about how this debt gets renegotiated. that is why the report i mentioned in my column yesterday that refund america project has put together is so important. scooping and tossing puerto rico's future. i would like saqib bhatti to talk about the main findings of your report, especially how much of this debt that puerto rico has is really illegitimate debt, a gouging by many of the wall street firms. >> juan, we have been doing a series of reports, looking at the legitimacy of puerto rico's debt. what we found is over the course of the various reports we put out, thus far we have identified $37 billion in debt we believe to be legitimate.

in this report in particular, we look at part of this scoop and toss deals. that is basically when banks convince puerto rico to keep refinancing the same debt over and over again in order to avoid making payments. this is called scoop and tossed because your scooping up the debt due today and tossing it years and the future but banks did this because they got to charge exorbitant fees out of it. puerto rico scoop and toss still since 2000, banks left ubs charged $1.6 billion in issuance fees. to be6 billion comes known as part of puerto rico's debt. we think that is illegitimate will some similarly, there's another $1.6 billion that these scoop and toss deals were part of where they actually took out money to pay interest on other debt. what they did is in a fact, interest rates became due and i did not have the money to pay,

so they put it on the credit card. they will be paying interest on the interest. in this report we identified one points explained dollars in fees, one points explain dollars in this capitalized interest to $3.2 billion in illegitimate debt just from scoop and toss deals and previously we identified a series of payday loans that puerto rico turned into so altogether the total so far is $37 billion and we know that number will keep going up as we look -- issue subsequent reports. juan: one of the things i was most struck about your report was the percentage that these banks were charging puerto rico in fees compared to what the normal percentage in the security industry is. i think you had one example of barclays was a lead underwriter on a 2011 bond where they charged 9% of the total amount of money raised as their fees,

when the normal fees nationwide are 1% to 2%. so they were gouging puerto rico just on the fees of putting together the deal. >> that is exactly right. one of the biggest problems with these things is that the reason why banks really push them was because they made huge fees off of them. as you said, nationally, we did a report last year that showed the average for issuance fees on bonds is actually about 1.02%. in puerto rico, the averages 2.7% from almost three times as high as the national average. again, there was the instance you mentioned where barclays charged 9%. what is interesting about this, this actually a couple of years ago would have been illegal in puerto rico. puerto rican law did not allow bond issuance fees to be more than 2% until 2009. in 2009, a law was passed, public law 7, which also has led ofharsh austerity measures

government workers. it actually lifted some of the protections that puerto rican taxpayers had against wall street. a particular thing it did is it allowed these fees more than 2%. prior to the passing of this law, these high fees could not have happened but now we're seeing puerto rico be charged through the nose and it is paying, friendly, it paid higher than cities and states that had weaker credit ratings. while detroit was slipping toward bankruptcy, but rating was junk, it was still paying lower fees than puerto rico was a couple of years ago. that is outrageous. amy: saqib bhatti, we will leave it there today and link to your report, director of the refund america project and a fellow at the roosevelt institute. the report "scooping and tossing , puerto rico's future." juan, we will have a link to your article at "the new york daily news."

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