BUSINESS-01
Toll Approaches 350; Death Toll Rises to 43 After Japan Quakes; Syrian
Opposition Suspends Participation in Peace Talks; Japanese Companies
Suspend Production; Brazil`s President Gives Speech on Impeachment;
Rousseff: Impeachment Has No Legal Basis; Rousseff: I Committed No
Impeachable Crime; Rousseff: "Today, Above All, I Feel Injustice"; Rousseff
"Outraged" by Impeachment Vote; Rousseff: I Was Treated Like No One Else
Was Treated; Rousseff: Impeachment Has No Legal Basis - Part 2>
Monica, Andrew Stevens, Shasta Darlington>
Kyushu and has stopped or severely cut industrial production. Toyota says
that a majority of its car assembly plants will be shut down in stages.
Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil addressed the nation after her
impeachment vote. Rousseff insists there is no legal basis for impeachment
and that it was a political coup to remove her from office.>
America>
NEWTON: I know what you`re saying but even connected to the Olympics, you have this issue of the Zika virus and that rally can unsettle people in terms of trying to settle there. I mean just last week, we have the CDC here in the United States saying that look the link -- link is there to the, you know, the kind of problems they`ve seen in newborns and the Zika virus.
In terms of these institutions actually having to perform, I dare say it, after peak during this kind of political crisis, I mean you and I both know nothing is getting down in Brazilia right now. What gives you so much confidence is this is all going to go, you know, OK for them throughout the rest of 2016?
NEVES: No, I think with the Olympics, you know, I think that most of the job has already been done. But now you`re completely right. I mean there`s a state of paralysis that kind of ineffectiveness that explains why as a markets are reacting so -- so palliative who lasts several months because essentially they`re saying, you know, anything -- anything different in President Rousseff is better than her. So I think that that`s -- but of course, I mean there`s a sense of paralysis and many, many new problems like the Zika that, you know, you`re not going to go away anytime soon.
So even if we have an impeachment whoever is sitting in the Presidential Palace in the next coming in the coming months will not solve the crisis and I think that`s quite clear that`s one of the few certainties we have of late when it comes to Brazil. But with the Olympics, I don`t that that`s a game changer.
NEWTON: Interesting. I don`t want to put you on the spot here but of course I will, anyway. You know, social media showdown in Brazil. You have people saying and agreeing with Dima Rousseff that this is been a coup. Others are saying that this proves the strength of the institutions in Brazil.
Now this is really democracy at work that she is incredibly unpopular and that is time for her to go and yet others are saying look this isn`t a democracy, she was voted in, she has the right to continue her term. Where do you stand on that?
NEVES: I think this is the growing pains of as a stronger democracy. I think that I don`t it`s a coup, I think institutions are working, I think were will be ample chances for her defense still. But you know, when we look in the bigger picture, I think this is a process of a country that has come back to democratic state 30 years ago and its showing some signs of a vitality although ver -- more dysfunctional that it should be.
NEWTON: OK, with that, we will leave it there al though we promise not to bring up the Brazilian laws once again in soccer because the country is already suffering enough and I think we better not go there again, but thank you we will have you back to discuss the local crisis appreciated.
NEVES: My pleasure.
NEWTON: Now, rescuers are rising to try and find anyone trapped in the rebel from Japan`s two earthquakes. Now, the countries major businesses are also of course suffering. We have a live report from Tokyo and that`s up right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NEWTON: Hello, I`m Paula Newton, and there`s more Quest Means Business in just a moment. When Britain should get ready for a long period of certainty with the vote to leave the E.U. That`s the warning from a head of the IMF.
Could a drone have hit a commercial airplane at one of the world`s busiest airports? The pilot certainly think so, we`ll have the latest on the investigation. Before that though, this is CNN, and hear the news always comes first.
Israeli police are investigating an explosion aboard a bus in Jerusalem calling it a deliberate attack. They are saying an explosive device went off at the back of the bus causing a huge fire that engulfed another bus as well. At least 21 people were wounded.
The death toll from Ecuador`s earthquake is approaching 350. Thousands have been injured and there is widespread damage across the country after the 7.8 magnitude quake hit Saturday. The U.N. is preparing an airlift of supplies and a massive search and rescue operation is now underway.
The death toll in Japan from last week`s two earthquakes now stands at 43. Search and rescue crews continue to look for survivors and crumbled buildings in an area that`s hit by landslides. Japan`s meteorological agency says there still a risk that more buildings will collapse.
An U.N. envoy says Syria`s main opposition group has suspended its participation in peace talks but he says opposition negotiators will remain in Geneva for informal discussions. They`re protesting escalating violence in Syria. Accusing the government of violating a cease-fire deal.
In Japan, there is a knock on effect for the economy from those deadly quakes we were telling you about. CNN`s Andrew Stevens is for us now, very early there in Tokyo and yet the day begins, Andrew, and again a lot of adversity for this economy, arguably an economy that can`t really -- comes at a bad time. I suppose it`s no surprise that it would be affecting industrial production?
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN MONEY, ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: Well, absolutely, Paula. But perhaps a little more so than in many other economies, because Japan really invented the model of how to supply parts to their factories all over the country. Just in time, as it`s known to actually go to the finish product. When you get a disruption somewhere along the line, it`s going to have quite a big ripple effect across the country. And this is particularly true of the car industry. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVENS (voice-over): As the search for survivors of the two Kyushu earthquakes continues, corporate Japan is now counting the cost of the disaster. Quake damage, aftershocks, and smashed roads, bridges and rail lines on the island have either stopped or severely cut industrial production. Kyushu is known as car island. Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Daihatsu, between them produce about 1.5 million of the 9 million cars made in Japan each year. And Honda`s only motorcycle plant has stopped production.
STEVENS (on camera): The impact just isn`t being felt in Kyushu either. So many car part suppliers are based on the island which means production is going to be hit right across Japan. Toyota is going to be forced to cut production across the country dramatically over the next week.
STEVENS (voice-over): Toyota says that a majority of its car assembly plants in Japan will be shut down in stages over the next few days. The car companies, CNN spoke to, say it`s too early to know how long these disruptions will last. And it`s not just the automakers. Sony makes iPhone parts at a plant in Kyushu.
[16:35:00] And tourism is also booming in Kyushu. As visitors flock to its natural and manmade wonders. But attractions like the 400-year-old Kumamoto Castle have been badly damaged.
Kyushu makes up almost 9% of Japan`s economy. Experts say the quake comes at a bad time for Japan by the quake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Japan`s economy is weak. The long term growth potential of Japan is 0.4%, so any knock to the economy is going to be felt more broadly.
STEVENS (voice-over): Shinzo Abe`s government says it has an initial $3 billion set aside to help economic recovery efforts. And that includes the government says, providing all necessary support to companies affected by the quakes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STEVENS: So Paula, we`ve been talking to Toyota just trying to get a handle on just how much production could be cut. They`re not saying, but I can tell you for April last year, for example, for the month of April they produced like 250,000 cars and nearly all their production lines, they won`t say how many, but virtually all their production lines across the country are going to be closed at some stage during the next week. It depends on just how bad the damage is as to how long they`ll get going again. But this stage, economists are saying they expect things to pick up fairly quickly and you`re not going to see a dramatic short-term impact and even if there is an impact there will be more spending on rebuilding Kyushu so that could offset the downside somewhat.
NEWTON: And in terms of there being risks to the economy in a larger way as we know, Japan really seeing a lot of adversity before this, of course, the Japanese government and the central bank trying to do whatever they could to stimulate growth there, is there a sense, and I know you just said, production won`t be perhaps impacted for that long, is there a sense it will have any effect on the macro economy in the next quarter?
STEVENS: It`s interesting, Paula. The Japanese economy has a long-term growth potential of less than half of 1%. Gives you an idea of just how slowly the world`s third biggest economy is growing. It`s an aging population. People are worried about jobs in Japan, even though money is cheap, no one is borrowing, and certainly no one is spending it. There could be more of a psychological impact. You got earthquakes, people tend to sort of don`t go out and spend, they sort of tend to keep their money at home. That is a bigger problem.
As far as the actual number of the economic sort of slowdown if you like, caused by the Kyushu quakes, no one is really saying. But the research notes you read say it should be a short-term impact, don`t expect it to have a big effect on the overall state of the economy. Like I said, Kyushu contributes about 10%, a little bit less than 10% of the total Japanese economy. If this quake had happened closer to the industrial heartland it would have been much, much more severe on the economic performance of the entire country.
NEWTON: Still an incredibly interesting look on the interconnectedness of all of the production facilities. Andrew Stevens, therefore us bright and early in Tokyo, he continues to stay on top of that.
As we were saying, we are following developments in Brazil. We now hear that President Rousseff is speaking, she`s addressing the nation. Let`s listen in.
DILMA ROUSSEFF, PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL (via translator): Good afternoon to all of you. Good afternoon to all the journalists, to the photographers. I would like to say to you, that today, above all, I feel I injustice. Injustice because I consider that this process is a process. There is no base for systemization, and that`s why I feel injustice. Injustice always occurs when somebody is squashed, when the process of defense is squashed. But also when in an absurd way, there is an accusation, when someone is accused for something first, that is not a crime, and secondly, they accuse and nobody refers to what is the problem.
[16:40:00] I watched throughout yesterday all of the interventions and I did not see a discussion about the crime of responsibility that is the only way to judge a president of the Republic in Brazil. This is what the constitution defiance. The constitution predicts that the impeachment is possible, yes, and we have to recognize that it`s over there written, but at the same time the constitution determines that it`s necessary the existence of the crime of responsibility. So that someone can be considered and taken away from the position of president after receiving the majority of votes from the population.
I received 54 million votes and I feel this decision is absurd. That`s a consideration of admissibility of my impeachment. And I`m going to insist it may seem that I am insisting in one key only. It`s an important key, but it`s the key of democracy. I am going to insist that there is no crime of responsibility. The acts that they accuse me of, they were practiced by other presidents in the Republic before me and it wasn`t characterized as being illegal acts or criminal acts. They were considered legal. Therefore, when I feel injustice, it`s because with me, I was treated like no one else was treated.
The acts of which they accuse me, they were practiced based in technical precedence and none of them are benefits to me. They are not acts so that I may get rich individually. I leave this question of the acts, with a peaceful conscience, because I practice these acts, they are acts that are practiced by all presidents in the Republic who will exercise their position. And when one president practices, administrative acts, he does based in a chain of decisions. This chain of decisions there is technical analysis, legal analysis, and from there on the president signs. So this was the opinion before I signed these acts and after,
That was the position of all of the jurists that were involved in this decision. It`s important that I leave with a clean conscience of the acts. I leave with a clean conscience because I did not do these illegally. I didn`t do them, based in any illegality. And worse than this, I am certain that they know this. That everybody knows that it`s this. Everyone knows. Even more, it is very interesting because there is nothing against me in the accusation of misappropriation of public money. There is no -- nothing against me about the enrichment. I wasn`t accused of having accounts overseas, therefore I feel injustice. I feel like this, because those who did illegal acts and have accounts overseas, they presided the session that takes care of such a grave serious issue that is the impeachment of a president.
[16:45:00] And I want to say to you, that I also feel without justice for another reason. For not allowing me that I could not have in the last 15 months governed the last 15 months in the environment of stability, see that against me, practice me, practice against me, a systemic tactic, strategy, of the worst the better. It`s the worst for the government, it`s better to the opposition and this is expressed in several agendas that are like bombshells where some of these agendas involve over 100 billion.
It did not allow for any government action from the government. Agendas like this one that has taken place right now that is a project, of a decree, it`s a legislative decree project that in transforming the correction of the states that in a correction of -- it will create a hole in our budget in the country of over 30 billion PIs. It`s a bombshell agenda that insists systemically never announce that what the government does good, but underscore every time that we have not done or we forget to do.
It`s a bombshell agenda with us now also. In every circumstances, projects, important projects that were necessary to be voted, so that Brazil in a quick way could retake its growth or there were delayed or they were not voted because of this. I want to say to you that this is a situation that can only provoke. This is what I told you, what it provokes first, it`s an immense feeling of injustice, and secondly, it`s a feeling that there is violence in Brazil against truth, against democracy, and against our Democratic state.
I believe that it is very bad for Brazil and may the world see that our young democracy enters a process with this, with a low quality, with low quality mainly when we deal with the formation of blaming the president of the Republic. Because if it is possible to condemn the president of the Republic without him or her having any culpability, what is possible of doing against the citizen, any of the citizen. That is what each one of us, when we`re not president or what is possible to do with the Brazilian citizen that are in truth the great protagonists of the history of democracy saw.
I would like to remind you how this process happened, how it took place, and to explain the feeling of injustice. First in the beginning and this each one of you of all the news in the beginning, went the opening of process is accepted. The reasons that take the acceptance of this, this process open, they are not reasons founded at the lead of exception but in a way a vengeance. The fact that we did not accept to negotiate votes in the ethics committee, let`s remember this, you news makers. In our defense, we have not presented nothing other than what the news have showed.
[16:50:00] I want to say, that now, in the second moment, the second phase of this process, I leave with a feeling of indignity for the fact that of the face that is the image that was shown to the world, is the abuse of power, the no commitment to the institutions and the practices and unethical and immoral practices. I would also like to say, that I have always fought for democracy. I believe in democracy. And I always fought for it. I will always continue to fight for it. In the past, in my youth, I faced the dictatorship by my conviction and now I face with conviction, a coup. A coup that is not only a traditional coup when I was young, but unfortunately a coup that is traditional of my maturity. It is a coup. In which there is an appearance used of a legal and democratic process to perpetrate the most abominable crime against a person that is injustice. To condemn someone who is innocent.
No government, I am sure of this, will be legitimate, will be a government, in which the people can be recognized in it, on it. It is a product of its democracy without being through the secret vote direct in a general election previously called for in which all of the citizens participate. It cannot call an impeachment as a tentative of an indirect election. This tentative of indirect election it happens because those who want to get the power, they don`t have the votes for such. Beyond this I believe, that it`s important to recognize that it`s extremely strange, but above all that a vice president in the exercise of his position, conspires against the president openly.
In no democracy in the world a person who had done this would be respected, because society, human society, they don`t like traitors. Why do they not like traitors because each one of us knows also the injustice and the pain that one feels when betrayal is seen in the act? This I want to say to you. I would like to answer some questions.
The world and history observe each act that is practiced in this moment, we know, all of us, who have, who live in difficult times, but times that are historic.
NEWTON: And we were listening to Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil, saying, of course, that she believes what is happening to her, this whole impeachment process is what she calls, a coup, she calls it in injustice, and says that it is a betrayal, a betrayal not just of herself but also of democracy. We now bring in our Shasta Darlington, who is live in Brasilia. I means, Shasta, what do you make of this? A lot of what she said is not new, you heard it several times before. She continues to put up the same defense and yet do you think it will matter now?
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, that`s a great question. I think it may be too little too late. She does repeat some of the same arguments and said over and over again how can I be accused of a crime, which is basically hiding this budget deficit, borrowing money from state banks that pay for her social programs.
[16:55:00] When according to her, other presidents did it before her and it wasn`t criminal behavior. Why is it suddenly behavior when I do it? So that`s how she defends herself and says, you know, when you take a look at my past, you`re not going to see any personal or enrichment, not going to see any Swiss bank accounts.
Clearly that`s a dig at many, unfortunately, many legislatures in the congress who have been accused of just that, especially the leader in the lower House of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, who is the most adamant person leading this impeachment effort. She talked about this as being vengeance, the leader of the House is in the same party as the Vice President Michel Temer, who would step in for her if she were to face an impeachment trial. And she`s referred to him as a traitor saying that this wouldn`t be accepted in any other democracy in the world. And you heard her saying how can this happen and in a democracy we should be worried about our Democratic institutions. As you said, Paula, she said this before. What impact could it have now, she`s definitely not going to take this laying down, she going to go down with a fight. But it`s hard to believe it will have much of an impact going forward, Paula.
NEWTON: Shasta, one thing that you have underscored for us time and again in the fact that while so many Brazilian politicians have been accused of corruption, Dilma Rousseff has not. What she`s being accused of is basically fudging the budget books and she says something other leaders of Brazil has done. Why is that make nothing difference in Brazil whatsoever? As she said they`ve investigated me and I`m clean. I`ve not taken any money.
DARLINGTON: Paula, it`s the context, you know, as you know, Brazil is suffering its worst recession in decades. Unemployment is high. Inflation is high. So even many of those people who backed the Workers Party over the last 13 years, who voted for Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, they feel betrayed.
Shasta, we apologize but we have to leave it there, Shasta, thanks so much. Thanks, Shasta. Shasta from Brasilia will stay on the story for us. And that`s QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I`m Paula Newton. Stay with CNN for more news after the break.
END
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