Brazilian New Government Loses Minister after Leaked Recording

Juca on Monday asked for a 'leave' from office and stepped aside after a controversial conversation recording was leaked.

"Juca had an excellent performance as a minister. I hope he can solve the problems that made him to step aside and return. It is my sincere wish," said Serra at a press conference at the Brazilian embassy in Argentina.

"I will step aside from the office until the prosecutor decides about my case," said Juca, the confidant of interim president Michel Temer, who recently replaced the suspended president, Dilma Rousseff.

The newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo published a conversation transcript between Juca and Sergio Machado, the president of the state oil company, Transpetro, a fully owned subsidiary of Petrobas.

In the recording, Juca said that 'the government has to change to stop the bleeding,' and suggested that if Temer took office instead of Rousseff, the investigation of Petrobas case could be 'stopped.'

The suspended president Rousseff said the recording shows "clearly the conspiratorial and coup character" of the new government.

Rousseff reiterated that she will continue "to fight in all possible dimensions" and will try to return to power "in one way or another."