Brazil: blow to Bolsonaro as judge orders release
of expletive-ridden video
Two-hour video of cabinet meeting released as part of
inquiry into claims Bolsonaro tried to meddle in investigation into his son
Bolsonaro is heard to say in the video: ‘I’m not going
to wait for [the federal police] to fuck my family and friends just for shits
and giggles.’
Associated
Press in Rio de Janeiro
Published
onSat 23 May 2020 02.00 BST
An
expletive-ridden video showing the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro,
expressing frustration at his inability to get information from police and
vowing to change cabinet ministers if needed to protect his family has been
released at the order of a supreme court justice in a new blow to the far-right
president.
The
two-hour video of a cabinet meeting, with portions redacted, was released as
part of an inquiry into allegations that the president was trying to illegally
interfere in a criminal investigation of his son, a claim made by the former
justice minister Sergio Moro when he resigned last month.
The former
minister told investigators that Bolsonaro openly demanded he make changes in
key federal police positions, including the head of the agency as a whole. Moro
resigned after Bolsonaro fired the federal police director-general without
consulting him.
Bolsonaro
has denied inappropriate pressure and insisted his quotes were misinterpreted.
The video
shows the president complaining: “I already tried to change our security in Rio
de Janeiro and I couldn’t. That is over. I’m not going to wait for [the federal
police] to fuck my family and friends just for shits and giggles.”
Bolsonaro
has insisted that he was referring to the head of his security detail, though
he had, in fact, successfully changed that position recently. Moro said he was
alluding to the head of police operations in Rio, who presumably might have
been involved into investigations into the president’s sons, who live there.
At another
point, the president also complains about his inability to get information from
the police or other agencies.
“You can’t
work like that. It’s difficult. That’s why I will interfere. Period,” he said.
Bolsonaro’s
popularity has been sagging in part due to the resignation of Moro, widely seen
as an anti-corruption crusader, and to his attempts to minimize the coronavirus
pandemic, which has now killed more than 20,000 Brazilians and at an increasing
pace.
The
released footage also shows environment minister Ricardo Salles calling on the
government to push through further deregulation of environmental policy while
people are distracted by the coronavirus pandemic. “We need to make an effort
while we are in this calm moment in terms of press coverage, because they are
only talking about Covid, and push through and change all the rules and
simplify norms,” Salles says in the video.
Deforestation
hit an 11-year high last year and has increased 55% in the first four months of
the year, compared with a year ago, with environmental groups blaming
Bolsonaro’s policies.
Bolsonaro
has called for development of the Amazon, saying it is necessary to lift people
out of poverty and that he is being unfairly demonized by the media.
Asked to
respond to the video, the Environment Ministry issued a comment from Salles: “I
have always defended de-bureaucratization and simplifying norms, in all areas,
with good sense and all within the law. The tangle of irrational laws hinders
investments, the generation of jobs and, therefore, sustainable development in
Brazil.”
In the
video Salles complained about legal challenges to proposed environmental rule changes,
that the government needed legal “artillery” to defend the changes and should
bypass Congress.
“We don’t
need Congress. Because things that need Congress, with the mess that is there,
we are not going to get passed.”
Greenpeace
Brasil spokeswoman Luiza Lima said in a statement that “Salles believes that
people dying in line at hospitals is a good opportunity to move forward on his
anti-environmental project.”
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