Bolsonaro appointment set to deepen divisions
Pick for justice minister jailed Lula, stopping him from running for president
The Brazilian judge at the centre of one of the largest corruption investigations in history says he will become justice minister in the Government of President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, a decision that will be hailed by Brazilians eager for a crackdown on graft but also add to deep polarisation after a bruising presidential campaign.
Sergio Moro is wildly popular among conservatives and loathed by many on the left, so his decision to join the incoming Administration will feed the suspicion of many Brazilians that the judge was politically biased in jailing ex-President Luiz Inacio da Silva (Lula), a conviction that forced the poll-leading leftist out of the presidential race.
Moro met with Bolsonaro at the President-elect’s home in Rio de Janeiro yesterday. Moro later put out a statement confirming he had accepted an offer to lead both the justice and public security ministries, which will be combined in Bolsonaro’s Government.
Moro said it would be hard to give up being a federal judge after 22 years, but he saw an opportunity to “implement a strong agenda of anticorruption and anti-organised crime” in his new role.
“In practice, this will mean consolidating the advancements against crime and corruption the last years and remove any risks of going backward,” he wrote.
He added that the sprawling “Car Wash” investigation would continue in the hands of local judges in the southern city of Curitiba, where Moro lives and many of the cases have been tried.
He also said he would provide more details on his new role next week.
Launched in 2014, the “Car Wash” probe uncovered elaborate schemes in which construction companies received bloated contracts and then kicked back billions of dollars in bribes to politicians and other government officials over more than a decade.
The level of corruption was breathtaking for Brazilians long inured to graft, and the scandal has reverberated across several Latin American countries where Odebrecht, one of the companies at the centre of the scandal, did business.
The investigation has led to the jailing of many of the country’s biggest names. That list includes Lula, convicted by Moro of corruption for trading favours with construction company Grupo OAS for the promise of a beachfront apartment. Lula began serving a 12-year sentence in April.
The cases made Moro a wildly popular figure with Brazilians tired of the numerous stories of politicians plundering government coffers. Earlier this year, he tracked highly in presidential polls even though the judge, quiet and wonky, never expressed interest in running.
However, many of his tactics have been highly controversial, such as the use of extended pre-trial detentions and plea bargains, both aimed at getting high-profile suspects to talk.
Bolsonaro, meanwhile, yesterday reiterated that he plans to move Brazil’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, joining the United States and Guatemala. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly welcomed the plan.
Bolsonaro said in a tweet: “As previously stated during our campaign, we intend to transfer the Brazilian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Israel is a sovereign state and we shall duly respect that.”
The move would make Brazil the third country to have an embassy in Jerusalem, after the US and Guatemala. Paraguay briefly moved its embassy to Jerusalem as well, only to move it back to Tel Aviv after its new President, Mario Abdo Benitez, was elected.