Vengeful Sinners

On April 22, 2021, during the trial at the Supreme Federal Court that made Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a victim of the partiality of Judge Sergio Moro, Judge Luiz Roberto Barroso outlined the methodology used to dismantle judicial offensives against delinquents condemned to perpetual impunity. “Those who followed what happened in Italy know the movie of the corrupt’s reaction,” said Barroso. It was a reference to Operation Clean Hands, brought down by a counter-attack distributed on three fronts. “First: changes in legislation or jurisprudence,” Barroso continued. “The second is the demonization of prosecutors and judges. Third: hijacking the narrative and co-opting the press to change the facts and retell the story.” As soon as Operation Car Wash approached territories never trespassed by men of law, the strategy that had worked in the European country was reprised in Brazil, with identical success, by the confederation of untouchable thieves.

Noting the similarities, Barroso pointed out a difference that does not improve Brazil’s image. In Italy, the victorious corrupt individuals were satisfied with the restoration of the right to commit crimes in peace. “Here corruption also wants revenge,” he observed. “It wants to go after the prosecutors and the judges who dared to confront it, so that no one ever again has the courage to do so. In today’s Brazil, we have those who do not want to be punished, which is a human and understandable sentiment. But we have a much worse lot. This group does not want to be honest even from now on. They would like everything to continue as it always has.” Relying on this diagnosis, Barroso joined the minority opposed to the idea of attaching the stigma of “bias” to Sergio Moro, the lead judge of Car Wash. The winning bloc thought that, with the disqualification of the judge, the release of the defendant Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would be swallowed without choking even by those who applauded the performance of the largest and most effective anti-corruption operation of all time.

In June 2020, in an interview on the program Roda Viva, the minister emphatically rejected the thesis that the operation “was compromised by the criminalization of politics”. In his response, he used the expression “it was a real crime” to define what happened at Petrobras, Eletrobras, Federal Savings Bank, in payroll loans and pension funds. “We must not criminalize politics nor politicize crime,” he continued. “Embezzlement of money, managers returning 150, 180 million, it’s not possible for someone to find this normal. This is not politics, this is criminality. Corruption in Brazil was a structural, institutionalized and systemic criminality. The Car Wash operation helped change the culture of impunity in the country.” For the interviewee, “society has stopped accepting the unacceptable, and has developed an immense demand for integrity, idealism, and patriotism”. A quick internet search attests that Car Wash was also praised by the ministers Alexandre de Moraes, Luiz Fux, Cármen Lúcia and even Gilmar Mendes. Publicly, only the dean Gilmar radically changed his mind. After attributing to the operation the dismantling of the thievery plant controlled by the PT, the robe’s metamorphosis transformed prosecutors, judges, and even Curitiba into his great Satans.

At the moment, Gilmar is moved by the book in which Emilio Odebrecht swears that he only signed the leniency agreement, which he now tries to annul, because he succumbed to torture. Here’s another strong candidate for a spot in the Fake News Inquiry. Barroso has never renounced what he said about Car Wash, but he has avoided comments on the operation since the Supreme Federal Court became the protagonist of the Brazilian-style wild west show that has labeled every Brazilian with opinions that could delay the shallow burial of Jair Bolsonaro’s political projects as fascist, uninformed, or coup-minded. The remnants of Car Wash have already been punished by changes in legislation and jurisprudence predicted by Barroso. They have long been systematically demonized. The press consortium does what it can to turn sheriffs into villains and criminals into men of the law. We are now in the stage of revenge, plotted by incurable resentful individuals, traumatized by the fear of hearing knocks on the door at 6 a.m., announcing the arrival of the Federal Police and the reckoning. Barroso silently observes the procession of arbitrary decisions, absurd measures, illegal arrests, secret inquiries, and other slaps in the face of the Constitution.

Judges and prosecutors from Car Wash were held accountable every half hour for assaults on due legal process and the right to a broad defense that only existed in the imagination of lawyers specialized in circus tricks. Alexandre de Moraes doesn’t stop doing what Sergio Moro never did — without hearing a peep from his colleagues in the Supreme Court. In the diverse bouquet of people caged by the anti-corruption offensive, there isn’t a single wronged individual. They were all criminals, but they were rescued by the super-judges. The Superior Electoral Court, a bold annex to the Supreme Court, needed 66 seconds, a lot of cynicism, and circus-style argumentation to impeach federal deputy Deltan Dallagnol. Punished for leading the task force of prosecutors, Deltan suffered an additional punishment. Besides federal deputy Marcel Van Hattem, from the New Party, no parliamentarian attended the solidarity demonstration promoted in Curitiba. Enthused by the flip side of things, the money launderer Alberto Youssef decided to demand some compensation for a very serious offense: the Federal Police wiretapped a phone conversation with some partner in roguery without judicial authorization, who refuses to identify himself.

Born in March 2014 to investigate money launderers, the operation soon came across wrongdoings involving directors of Petrobras, PT bigwigs, and favored businessmen. Fearless judges, prosecutors, and federal police officers pressed on. They ended up dismantling the biggest corruption scheme in history, adorned by the participation of filthy rich contractors and even former president Lula. The decent part of Brazil felt as if they were in an early Carnival. Those who detested the sudden change in the landscape were the System, a codename for the assembly of big shots from the Three Powers, industry and commerce, cities and countryside, all parties and all tendencies – in summary, the System encompasses all sub-species committed to making money from dealings since the arrival of the first caravels. The head-on collision between law and crime would occur in 2016.

For Car Wash, this would be the most productive of the years. The 45 temporary arrests and 25 preventive arrests added a handful of celebrities to the prison population – for example, former Ministers of Finance Antonio Palocci and Guido Mantega, the marketer of the realm João Santana, former governor of Rio Sérgio Cabral and former Speaker of the House Eduardo Cunha. Lula was coercively led to the Federal Police to testify about the cases of the triplex in Guarujá and the site in Atibaia. Impressed with the operation’s pace, the country barely noticed the appearance of the password for the start of the counter-offensive: “Stem this bleeding.” The phrase was recited by Romero Jucá, the Senate leader of all governments, during a conversation with former senator Sérgio Machado, then sheltered in the leadership of Transpetro, one of the Petrobras branches most affected by the gangrene of corruption. Few had the patience to read the Federal Police’s wiretapped dialogue. As the transcription of the best moments attests, the majority of Brazilians do not know what they missed. Check it out:

Sérgio Machado: But you see, Romero, so I think the situation is very serious.

Romero Jucá: I just think the following: it’s not going to work with Dilma (…). There’s no point in this project of sending Lula here to be a minister, to run a cabinet, this ends up throwing the economy’s expectations to the floor. Because if Lula gets in, he will talk to the CUT, to the MST, it’s only who listens to him more, who gives him some credit, the rest no one gives him credit for anything anymore. Do you agree with me? Will Lula meet there with business sectors?

SM: There must be an impeachment.

RJ: There must be impeachment. There is no other way.

SM: Here’s the thing, objectively speaking. With what the Supreme Court did, authorizing arrests immediately after second-instance decisions, everyone will make plea deals.

RJ: Exactly, and there will be a lot left over. Marcelo and Odebrecht are going to do it. Selective, but they’re going to do it.

SM: I’m very worried because I think Janot wants to get you guys. And he thinks I’m the way.

[Rodrigo Janot was the Attorney General of the Republic]

RJ: We have to solve this shit… We need to change the government in order to stem this bleeding.

SM: Man, the easiest solution was to put Michel Temer in.

RJ: Only Renan is against this shit, because Michel is Eduardo Cunha. People, forget about Eduardo Cunha, Eduardo Cunha is dead, dammit.

SM: It’s an agreement, put Michel in a big national agreement.

RJ: With the Supreme Court, with everything.

SM: The situation is severe. Because, Romero, they want to get all the politicians.

RJ: To end the political class in order to resurface, build a new, pure caste.

SM: That’s right, and to get everyone. And PSDB, I don’t know if it has sunk in yet.

RM: It has. All of them. Aloysio, Serra, Aécio…

SM: It has sunk in. Did Tasso also get it?

RJ: Yes. Everyone on the tray to be eaten.

SM: The first to be eaten will be Aécio. [Lowers voice tone] What did we do together, Romero, in that election, for him to become the President of the Chamber? [Changes subject] Friend, I need your intelligence.

RJ: I’m at your disposal, you know that. Let me know when you want to talk.

SM: I need to have an emergency conversation with you.

RJ: I think we can’t gather everyone to talk, you know? You should look for Sarney, you should talk to Renan. After you talk to both, gather everything, and then let’s talk about what you found and what they pondered for us to talk.

SM: Can’t we have a three-way meeting?

RJ: We can’t. This idea of ​​gathering to arrange things that have nothing to do with it. The guys already see something else that is not… Later we talk the three without you.

SM: If there isn’t a short-term solution, our risk is great.

RJ: [In a low voice] I talked yesterday with some Supreme Court ministers. The guys say, “oh, it’s only possible without Dilma. As long as she’s there, the press, they want to remove her, this damn thing will never stop.” Got it? So… I’m talking with the generals, military commanders. Everything is quiet, the guys say they will ensure. They are monitoring MST, I don’t know what, not to disturb.

SM: I think the following: the way out for Dilma is either a license or resignation. The license is softer. Michel forms a national unity government, makes a big deal, protects Lula, protects everyone. This country returns to calm, no one can stand it anymore. There must be a peace, a…

RJ: I think we need to have a pact.

It seems like jailhouse talk. And it is. It seems like it was just yesterday. It really was, if measured by historical time. The birth took longer than expected and was complicated, but the pact of the endangered tribal chiefs is in force. All those punished by Operation Car Wash are free, the Supreme Court does what it wants, and Congress excels at maintaining a stoic façade. Corruption has ceased to be a problem to be combated.

Technically, Operation Car Wash has not died. Former president Fernando Collor was condemned by the Supreme Court based on revelations obtained by the operation. And judge Gabriela Hardt, who found Lula guilty in the Atibaia site case, has just taken the position that once belonged to Sergio Moro and was for some weeks held by a police case disguised as a judge. 

However, it’s possible that Collor would have been acquitted if he had supported Lula. And no one knows how many weeks (or how many minutes) Gabriela will remain in her position.

Regardless, the years when millions of Brazilians could believe that the rule had finally come into force stating that all are equal before the law, and that there was room in prison for anyone who committed serious sins, even if they were the President of the Republic, seem as remote as the First Mass. Corruption has regained its vigor and is overflowing with health.