By Leo Cardoso
Fernando Collor de Mello, a former president and current senator, threatened Hugo Marques, a reporter for IstoÉ magazine, for publishing an article about efforts to invalidate his candidacy for governor of Alagoas state, O Globo reports.
According audio from a call to IstoÉ’s Brasília office, Collor cursed and threatened to hit the journalist in the face.
Collor was elected president in 1989, but resigned in 1992 after corruption allegations. He lost his right to seek political office for eight years, but was elected to the Brazilian Senate in 2006.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
