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Scandals befall Brazil's two-week-old interim gov't

Xinhua, May 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazilian interim President Michel Temer, who had tried to impress voters with a capable Cabinet, is having a lot of headaches brought by his ministers.

Les than two weeks into office, Temer lost the minister of planning and budget, Romero Juca, who was caught on tape saying that the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff was necessary to halt the investigations against state-owned oil company Petrobras and other sectors.

Juca announced that he was taking a leave of absence within hours after the recording was released on Monday.

Temer took over from Rousseff after she was suspended as part of the impeachment proceedings.

The recorded conversations added evidence to what Rousseff had repeatedly said -- the impeachment was a strategy to halt corruption investigations.

Moreover, Education Minister Jose Mendonca Filho was severely criticized on Wednesday for holding a meeting with a porn actor and confessed rapist.

Health Minister Ricardo Barros was also under fire for remarks that Brazil's public healthcare needs to be scaled down.

Several anti-Temer protests have been held in the past two weeks, posing a severe challenge to the new administration. Endi