BRAZIL MINISTER QUITS, POLICE CHIEF FIRED
Brazil’s justice minister, Sergio Moro, a former federal judge who became the face of a powerful anti-corruption crackdown that swept Latin America, resigned Friday after accusing President Jair Bolsonaro of seeking to assert improper control of the federal police for political gain.
The resignation of Moro, one of Brazil’s most popular politicians, set off a political uproar in Brazil, as critics across the political spectrum accused the president of having undermined a key pillar of democracy.
In his resignation speech, Moro delivered an extraordinary parting rebuke, recounting in great detail a conversation during which he failed to persuade the president not to follow through on his plan to fire the federal police chief, Maurício Valeixo, who was forced to step down Friday morning.
Brazil’s attorney general, Augusto Aras, later Friday asked the Supreme Court to open an investigation into the outgoing minister’s account.
Moro was the eighth minister to leave Bolsonaro’s Cabinet during the 15 months he has been in office.
In his resignation speech, Moro said Bolsonaro had confided that he wanted a police chief he could call directly and count on to obtain sensitive investigative information and intelligence dossiers.
The request came as several allies of the president — including two of his sons — are under criminal investigation by the federal police and the Supreme Court.
Moro said the president was “worried about pending cases before the Supreme Court,” and that the change at the federal police “would also be helpful in that sense.”
Bolsonaro fired back at
Moro in a lengthy, angry televised address Friday afternoon.
“I never asked to have any member of my family shielded,” Bolsonaro said, referring to Moro’s clear implication that the firing of the police chief was done in part to help protect his sons
The president also asserted that he was empowered to hire and fire department heads at will.