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Brazil's minister in charge of transparency and accountability within the coup government plotted with a prominent opposition figure to protect corrupt officials from facing investigation, the Brazilian daily O Globo reported Monday.
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This is the fourth major leak to burst onto Brazil’s political scene in a week, offering damning evidence of the motives behind the government of Michel Temer, who was appointed as 'interim' President after the controversial suspension of elected President Dilma Rousseff.
In the secret recording, Fabiano Silveira, appointed Minister of Supervision, Transparency, and Control by unelected interim President Temer, speaks with Senate chief Renan Calheiros and his lawyer, as well as former state oil executive Sergio Machado, the figure behind the recent series of leaks. At least one other unidentified person was also present.
In the Feb. 24 conversation, first leaked on Globo TV Sunday evening, the men criticize the Supreme Court corruption investigations known as Operation Car Wash that focused on bribery and illicit contract schemes in the state oil company Petrobras. Both Calheiros and Machado have been targets of the investigation.
At one point Silveira criticizes Attorney General Rodrigo Janot, responsible for overseeing Operation Car Wash investigations, describing him and other prosecutors as “lost.”
At the time, Silveira was part of the National Justice Council, a judicial watchdog body focused on ensuring Brazilian justice systems and functionaries' offices remain autonomous.
Now, Silveira heads the Ministry of Supervision, Transparency, and Control, which absorbed the previously-independent Comptroller General when Temer was installed in office. The move, one of a number of eliminations of key ministries, raised concerns that the ability to investigate corruption would be compromised by the loss of autonomy.
But Silveira’s involvement in conversations criticizing Operation Car Wash and strategizing on how to wage a defense on behalf of corrupt officials further shatters hope in the political will of the coup government to continue the anti-corruption campaigns. It also solidifies evidence that the plot to remove suspended President Dilma Rousseff from office had more to do with protecting corruption rather than rooting it out, which was how her rivals tried to paint the process.
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A union representing staffers of the former Comptroller General called for Silveira’s “immediate dismissal” on Monday in light of the recording, O Globo reported.
The leak comes as anxiety stirs within Temer’s ranks amid fears that Machado could soon release additional recordings implicating high-level opposition figures and more members of the interim cabinet. According to Folha, Machado has reportedly already passed on more recordings to the Attorney General’s office.
Last week, the first political bombshell to hit the unelected government revealed in a leaked wiretap that interim Planning Minister Romero Juca, also head of Temer’s PMDB party, had conspired with the Supreme Court and military commanders to ensure Rousseff’s ouster as part of a plot to put a stop to Operation Car Wash. A second leak involved Calheiros planning discussions with the Supreme Court to change laws governing investigations.
The leaks have solidified arguments that the campaign to impeach Rousseff was a coup and that the real motivation behind her ouster was shielding corrupt opposition officials from prosecution.
Rousseff was suspended from office for 180 days on May 12 through a Senate vote to make her stand trial over allegations of budget manipulations. Temer will remain in Brazil’s highest office until 2018 if the impeachment is ultimately approved.
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