The murder came as Brazil's Congress was considering proposals for a big overhaul of the country's judiciary.
Brazil's Congress is set to revise legislation in an attempt to strengthen safety regulations ahead of the World Cup.
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In 2002 Brazil's Congress voted to amend the constitution to exempt share trades from a widespread tax on transactions.
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Brazil 's Congress passed a key pension change, bolstering the government's fiscal reforms.
In 1998, Brazil's Congress approved a law allowing the air force to shoot down planes that enter Brazilian air space illegally.
Mr Dantas is alleged to have been one of the funders of a cash-for-votes scheme in Brazil's Congress mounted by leaders of Lula's Workers' Party in 2003-04.
Anyone who has been following the recent corruption scandals in Brazil's Congress will know that such a disaster is well within the powers of the country's lawmakers.
An inquiry by Brazil's Congress linked him to cigarette smuggling.
Despite high borrowing costs, farmers have invested heavily over the past decade (partly because the state-owned banks have repeatedly rolled over farmers' debts, in response to pressure from the powerful rural lobby in Brazil's Congress).
Last January, when the country's currency was in free fall after a disorderly devaluation, Brazil's Congress at last plucked up the courage to approve two overdue reforms, at the fifth time of asking by the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
If re-elected, Mr Cardoso must seize the opportunity of Brazil's current travails to persuade Congress to sweep away the constitutional entitlements (including automatic transfers to states and municipalities) that have made government spending so tenacious.
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Approval of this measure in Congress in January had seemed to signify that Brazil was at last prepared to take on cosseted vested interests.
In Lula's first term in Brazil leaders of his Workers Party resorted to buying votes in Congress.
Mr Cardoso is also a skilful alliance-builder, the key to dominance in Brazil's fragmented politics, where no party has more than a fifth of Congress.
For much of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's term, Congress has avoided acting on the constitutional amendments that he wants, and Brazil needs, to put its public finances in order.
The next big test for the government will come when Congress considers another tax fix, which would untangle a snarl of different sales-tax regimes in Brazil's 27 states and increase federal transfers to municipalities.
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