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 BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Brazil's mines and energy minister resigned Tuesday amid accusations he was bribed by a construction company that obtained contracts to provide electricity to poor rural areas in a program championed by the nation's first working class president.
Silas Rondeau, who headed President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's "Lights for Everyone" program, denied wrongdoing but said in a statement he was stepping down to prevent the controversy from hurting the government's push to bring energy to the poor.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Rondeau insisted on his "absolute innocence in relation to the accusations levied against me."
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