Congress Expels Congresswoman Flordelis, Accused of Having her Husband Killed
Congresswoman is the 21st to lose office by decision of the House's plenary since the redemocratization and the first since 2016
Aug.12.2021 1:18PM
Danielle Brant
Ranier Bragan
BRASÍLIA
Brazil's Congress expeled this Wednesday congresswoman Flordelis (PSD-RJ), who had been accused by the prosecutors of masterminding the murder of her husband, Anderson do Carmo.
NITEROI, RJ, 03.2021 - Flordelis de Souza. (Foto: Ricardo Borges/Folhapress) - Folhapress
There were 437 votes in favor of the impeachment and 7 against, with 12 abstentions, in an open vote — at least 257 votes were needed for the impeachment to be approved.
With the decision, Flordelis will be ineligible for eight years from the end of this legislature, on January 31, 2023.
It was the third impeachment, since 1988, motivated by the accusation that the congressman was involved in command or in the practice of murders.
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2021/08/congress-expels-congresswoman-flordelis-accused-of-having-her-husband-killed.shtml?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsen
(Short article, no more at link.)
Did Brazil’s evangelical superstar have her husband killed?
Flordelis grew up in a Rio favela, but rose to fame after adopting more than 50 children, becoming a hugely successful gospel singer and winning a seat in congress. And now she is on trial for murder
by Tom Phillips
Thu 10 Jun 2021 01.00 EDT
When Flordelis dos Santos de Souza boarded an air force jet from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília on the morning of 1 January 2019, she felt she was witnessing the beginning of a new dawn. Brazil was about to install a far-right religious nationalist, Jair Bolsonaro, as president, and she, a black gospel singer from one of Rio’s most violent and impoverished favelas, had won a seat in parliament, asserting her place among her country’s powerful evangelical elite. At 57, she was a church leader and a social crusader, celebrated for standing up to some of Rio’s most dangerous gangsters and for taking in dozens of children rescued from lives of deprivation and crime. She had devoted her life to building a multimillion-dollar evangelical empire, which had grown to include nine churches. Now she was a politician, too.
At her side was her husband, Anderson do Carmo de Souza, also a preacher, 16 years her junior, who managed her political career. “I want to thank all of you who had faith and gave Flor a place in this movement to change Brazil, isn’t that right love?” Anderson said into a camera as the pair stood on the airport runway, waiting to fly to the capital at the invitation of one of the country’s most powerful politicians, Rodrigo Maia, then speaker of the lower house.
By that time, Flordelis was one of the most famous evangelical figures in Brazil. Thousands would gather each week at her churches – collectively known as the Ministério Flordelis – to sing along as she belted out feelgood anthems with names such as God’s in Control and Justice Will Come. The largest venue – a converted bus depot that regularly held 5,000 worshippers – was called the Cidade do Fogo, or City of Fire. In a gift shop at the entrance you could buy white coffee mugs stamped with Flordelis’s picture and the message: “A miracle awaits you!!”
Flordelis was not just known for her charismatic preaching. Over the previous four decades, she had built an extraordinary family around her. In addition to her three biological children, she had formally and informally adopted dozens more, and taken in others who had turned up at the family home and never left. The precise number of adopted children is unclear, but the most commonly cited number is 55. Her husband had been one of them, joining her household at the age of 15.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jun/10/floredelis-did-brazil-evangelical-superstar-have-her-husband-killed
(It seems so strange that a small cult in the US like the Pentacostal church has overwhelmed some countries in Latin America. I don't get it. Even Jair Bolsonaro belongs to it. Oh, IIRC, also, Efraín Ríos Montt, friend of Ronald Reagan, and genocidal dictator of Guatemala. He was also a "minister." )