As Elections Near, Left Wing Boosted

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service

BUENOS AIRES, March 7 -- A major political party quit the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso today, rupturing Brazil's seven-year-old ruling
coalition in a bitter political spat seven months before presidential elections.

The right-wing Liberal Front Party (PFL) abandoned Cardoso's center-right coalition over allegations that the government sabotaged its candidate, Roseana Sarney,
a leading contender in the presidential race. Sarney, a state governor, is seeking to become Brazil's first female head of state. The federal police raided a company
she owns with her husband last Friday, seizing piles of cash, computers, files and other documents in a corruption probe.

The split robbed Cardoso of one of the most influential parties in his four-party coalition and could derail his agenda during the final months of his administration.
More importantly, it threw Cardoso's once-solid alliance into chaos in the months leading up to October's presidential vote and shifted the political momentum to the
left wing.

Sarney, the conservative doyenne of a powerful political family, has come on strong in recent weeks. Opinion polls show her tied for the lead with leftist firebrand
Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, whose victory in his fourth try for the presidency would likely mark a major shift away from the policies of free trade and privatization of
state-run companies in Latin America's largest nation. Analysts said that, given that the two candidates are running neck-and-neck, Silva stands to benefit most from
the dispute.

Former health minister Jose Serra, the candidate hand-picked by Cardoso from his own centrist Brazilian Social Democratic Party, is lagging far behind in opinion
polls.

Sarney, governor of the impoverished northern Brazilian state of Maranhao, demanded her party break with the government after authorities stormed a business
consulting firm she owns with her husband, Jorge Murad. Authorities uncovered more than $620,000 in local currency as well as details of accounts held in several
offshore banks. The federal police have said that the raid on Sarney's company in Sao Luis, the capital of Maranhao, was part of an investigation into fraud at
SUDAM, a development agency for Brazil's Amazon region.

Sarney, daughter of former Brazilian president Jose Sarney, denied any wrongdoing and immediately went on the offensive. She said the operation was a plot by
Cardoso's government to derail her candidacy and revive the flagging presidential hopes of the president's own Social Democrats. Sarney's father insisted
government officials had wiretapped and monitored her for campaign purposes in a kind of Brazilian Watergate. Leading members of her party described the act as
"political treason," suggesting their support during Cardoso's election in 1994 and reelection in 1998 should have precluded any probe into their candidate.

But Sarney herself complained the loudest, and threatened to pull out of the race if her party did not break with the government. "This is the worst act of violence I
have ever suffered in my life," Sarney told reporters in Brazil. "This was obviously politically motivated."

Sarney's brother resigned as environmental minister on Monday. Today, as the Liberal Front Party leadership broke with Cardoso's coalition, three other government
ministers belonging to the PFL also submitted their resignations. The party also recommended that almost 2,000 lower-ranking appointees and government PFL
officials do the same.

"Our candidate was the victim of unprecedented violence, with clear political consequences, with the intention of weakening her and even pushing her out of the
race," the party said in a statement. "Due to this, we concluded that the political reasons that sustained our alliance disappeared."

Cardoso has built a reputation as one of Brazil's most successful presidents, and one of its most honest, during his two terms in office. Today, he ranks as Latin
America's elder statesmen. Cardoso and officials close to him have strongly denied any relation to the raid.

Special correspondent Lucrecia Franco in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.

                                               © 2002