Brazil: When Silence Is Golden | Comment

Again, these are tense days for the unbalanced far-right who will lead Brazil between 2019 and 2022, and good news for Lula da Silva, who now begins the ninth month of her third term in office in September.

Jair Bolsonaro(photo), His wife Michelle, one of his lawyers, Fabio Wajngarten, and former presidential adviser Marcelo Camara have been called to testify to federal police investigating the sale of jewelry the then-president received between 2019 and 2022.

To no one’s surprise, the four chose to remain silent, protected by a law that dictates that no one can compel evidence against them.

At the insistence of Alexandre de Moraes, a member of the Federal Supreme Court, they were invited simultaneously, separately, to give statements to the Federal Police. This step was taken to prevent replies from being merged earlier.

Although it is not clear exactly what the questions will be, it is clear that the topic will be the illegal sale of high-value jewelry and watches that Bolsonaro received as gifts from Saudi leaders, rather than assigning them to national heirs. He chose to sell them and keep the money, as required by law.

The argument for the Bolsonaro couple and their associates to remain silent is that the Federal Supreme Court does not have the authority to determine the federal police’s actions in the case.

It is so weak that such a statement finds no support in existing law, much less in the Constitution.

The other four who were invited decided to keep the pledge and agreed to answer questions from the Federal Police. And they talked a lot.

One of them, Lieutenant-Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s aide and a man of absolute and unrestrained confidence, went to the extreme of reporting to the Federal Police more than an hour before the established date. And answered questions for over ten hours.

On Friday the 25th and Monday the 28th of August the Cid had already given reports in 16 hours.

His father, retired General Mauro Lourena Cid, chose to speak. Both were involved in the sale of jewelry and watches in the United States, and there are records indicating that El Cid Sr. brought in $25,000 in cash to the right wing among other jobs.

The details of the statement given by the father and son are not known. But the federal police has leaked to the media that it already has enough elements to indicate the existence of a criminal organization headed by Bolsonaro, whose mission is wide-ranging, from attacking democracy to illegal enrichment of resources and public assets.

The same police confirmed that members of that criminal organization worked together with clear and previously defined roles.

The former aide-de-camp clarified what Lt. Col. Mauro Cid said was the “financial flow” of the Bolsonaro clan — meaning his wife and children — by federal police. The far-right took refuge in Miami between December and April after their defeat against Lula da Silva in October last year.

To all this, at the request of the Brazilian Federal Police, added a report that the FBI will conclude, which makes it clear that in addition to jewelry, the Bolsonaro clan and its attackers negotiated “real estate and other assets.” United Nations.

In short: with each passing day, more and more elements indicate that Bolsonaro and his wife will not escape justice.

Already Lula is seeing his popularity rise slightly month by month, despite facing an unfavorable Congress, mainly in the House of Representatives. September begins with good results in the economy; In the second quarter of the year, GDP rose 0.9%, and in the first six months that growth was 3.7%, which exceeded not only the government forecast but also the financial market. Unemployment hit its lowest level since the first half of 2014.