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“I don’t want to end Lava Jato. I ended Lava Jato, because there is no more corruption in the government,” said Jair Bolsonaro, in a ceremony this Wednesday (7).
The declaration comes in the middle of the lush orange trees of the Ministry of Tourism, going through the storm of parliamentary amendments that helped in the approval of the Pension Reform to the massive and inexplicable “cracks” that involve the first family.
In the post-truth context, adopted as an instrument of government, objective facts are less and less important than appeals to emotions. Mainly for 12% to 16% of the president’s fanatic supporters. This was so throughout the coronavirus pandemic, when Bolsonaro created a parallel reality and placed his chosen people in it. Its most radical piece believes that there is a Chinese conspiracy with the world elite to implement chips using a fake vaccine and control people’s minds via 5G antennas.
Those same people must believe when the government says that corruption is over … Not government.
Formally, it is not the president who can decree the end of the Lava Jato operation, but the Attorney General’s Office. It should be remembered, however, that Augusto Aras, head of the institution, was nominated by Jair for the position outside the triple list of the most voted for the category. And he has acted to close the deal as we know it.
In a polarized country where crude Manichaeism reigns, criticizing Lava Jato’s abuse of constitutional rights is seen as a supporter of corruption. At the same time, criticizing the way in which some actors who are the object of investigation are running over the fight against corruption is to be seen as a supporter of the illegal behaviors and methods adopted by the working group. Which is bad for the country.
Having said all this, it should be noted that today’s statement by the President of the Republic comes in the midst of a much larger process of institutional walling.
Bolsonaro interfered with the Federal Police, the Council for the Control of Financial Activities (Coaf), the Federal Revenue Service, Ibama, ICMBio, Funai and the Attorney General’s Office, as mentioned above. Since taking office, he has been working to swallow the monitoring and control institutions in the name of his power project and the protection of the interests of his family and friends. This was made clear at the famous ministerial meeting on April 22, the video of which was made public.
He says that he put an end to corruption, but tries to cloud any investigation that looks at evidence of irregular practices by the first family, such as, for example, the embezzlement of public resources in the office of the then State deputy and, today, of the senator Flávio Bolsonaro. He says he ended corruption, but threatens to punch a journalist in the mouth who asks why Queiroz deposited R $ 89,000 in the account of the first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro.
The clan’s country project is an authoritarian populist government supported by sectors of the extreme right and part of the business community. In this plan, institutions that cannot be tamed are considered enemies. The National Congress and the Federal Supreme Court were the targets of closure requests by fanatic supporters of the president. He even spoke in an act that required a new Institutional Law number 5 and a military coup on April 19.
After actions against him and his allies advanced in the STF, he was advised to stop pulling the rope. He embraced the physiological center, from which he originally left, and became best friends with some Supreme Court ministers, accepting recommendations to lower the boil. With that, unless something new comes up, impeachment has become as complicated today as proving life on Venus.
As I said here, there is a revolutionary component in Bolsonarism, which is breaking down barriers and gradually advancing on the institutions. Bolsonaro realized that he can do a lot, since he is defending the strategic interests of a part of the elite – which accepts the devil with covid-19, but not the left – and of political sectors that, under any government, looted and ordered in Brazil. You just need to balance your interests, give in a bit, and keep the crazy people at bay. For now.
A part of society likes the self-deception that it is being completely contained by the checks and balances of the Republic because a supposed reformist agenda is advancing by leaps and bounds. In this way, they raffle the country at a low price.
Thus, we see that institutions are inclined to the needs of a family and its allies. And many people will be complicit in this.
