God have mercy on this nation

In the session that would approve the continuation of Dilma Rousseff's impeachment process on April 17, 2016, Eduardo Cunha prayed: "May God have mercy on this nation." But he would receive no mercy from the law of men.

The rise and fall of the former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies are fundamental elements in understanding a time when the political game descended into a deep, dark pit of transactions, corruption, and betrayals that, while not new to the Brazilian landscape, intensified and came to light dramatically. This game of chance brought the country to the brink of an institutional crisis. And Cunha was a central figure: manipulative, ambitious, and boundless.

Eduardo Cunha emerged on the political scene during the Fernando Collor de Mello administration in the 1990s as president of Telerj (Telecomunicações do Rio de Janeiro S/A), a state-owned telephone company. This was another period of severe instability and erosion of political structures and relationships, fractures opened by endemic corruption. He is a complex figure, reflecting a challenging way of doing politics, whose public career gives substance and character to the history of impunity in Brazil.

To reveal Eduardo Cunha's story, journalists Aloy Jupiara and Chico Otavio conducted dozens of interviews, delved into documents and court records, delved deeply into books, studies, and reports, and gained access to exclusive information. The portrait they deliver in this impactful book-length report is a masterclass in journalism, with an impressive volume of information, including (much) previously unpublished information, the result of meticulous research and investigation.

In this, God Have Mercy on This Nation , the authors fill a fundamental gap in understanding the country over the past twenty years: why we have plunged into such a deep political depression.