Brazil's Agriculture Minister leaves office amid corruption scandal

Waldirene Biernath

Wagner Rossi, member of the Democratic Movement Party of Brazil (PMDB), has resigned amid a corruption allegation. He had been accused of accepting bribes and free air travel from agricultural companies.

Rossi is the 4th minister to step down since President 

Dilma Rousseff came to power.             source:Google image

Rossi said he had spent a month battling what he called "false accusations", and he has had enough. "Over the last 30 days, I have faced a daily barrage of false accusations without any proof," Rossi wrote in a letter cited by Agencia Brasil.

He is the fourth minister to leave office because of corruption allegations since President Dilma Rousseff came to power in January. Defence Minister Nelson Jobim, Transport Minister Alfredo Nascimento and President Rousseff's chief of staff, Antonio Palocci, have all resigned since she took office.

See more:

http://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20110819/106430.shtml;

http://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2011/08/ministro-da-agricultura-wagner-rossi-pede-demissao.html;

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/961363-saiba-quais-ministros-do-governo-dilma-ja-deixaram-o-cargo.shtml

Vocabulary:

party: an organized group of people who have similar ideas about the way in which a country should be governed, and who work together to try to persuade people to vote for them in elections;

[ONLY BEFORE NOUN] belonging to or connected with a political party;

(to) resign (verb): leave (a job, post, post, or position) voluntarily ("The chairman resigned when he was found to have misappropriated funds");

amid: (prep.) In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among;

battling: (noun):  to try very hard to deal with a difficult situation. (“Surgeons battled to save the man’s life”).