The revelations made by Intercept-Brasil about the manoeuvres of the Lavo Jato[1] coordinators have had, to date, devastating results for this huge judicial-political-media operation of the Brazilian right. The manipulation of laws, with complete promiscuity in their forms of action and the absolutely partisan character of the persecution of Lula as its fundamental objective, has brought into view the real nature of operation Lava Jato as an instrument of Lawfare and hybrid war, as the new strategy of the right.

The immediate effect has been generalized questioning of the actions of the two main coordinators of Lava Jato, Sergio Moro and Deltan Delagnol. Initially, they reacted alleging that there was nothing illegal in what they had done. But as the conversations published became ever more scandalous, they have shifted their tactic, trying to displace the focus to the supposedly criminal character of the hackers having revealed their conversations, throwing doubt on the veracity of the dialogues, alleging that they could have been falsified.

But after the main organs of the traditional Brazilian press–Folha de Sâo Paulo, Veja, UOL, among others–came to analyse the documents, confirming their veracity before publishing them, to the point where even Globo has widely broadcast them, no one now questions the conversations.

In particular, Dalagnol has been questioned for the way in which he has been making money through conferences as a Lava Jato coordinator, as well as through manipulations against the judges of the Supreme Federal Tribunal. He has therefore been at the centre of the scandals and no longer responds to the nearly daily denunciations; so no one, including his allies, doubts that Dalagnol has fallen into disgrace and will be ousted from the coordination of Lava Jato.

Meanwhile, Moro is hiding and keeping quiet, hoping the anger will focus on Dalagnol, or perhaps seeking to avoid a trial. Meanwhile, the demand of Lula’s defence that Moro be declared unfit to judge Lula, with which the trials coordinated by Moro against the ex-President would be invalidated, leading to his immediate liberation, is coming up for judgment by the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), that are now returning from their vacation.

In this context, a female judge with close affinity to Moro has decreed that Lula should be transferred to São Paulo. This may well be because, with the certainty of Dalagnol’s substitution in the coordination of Lava Jato, she fears a loss of control of the operation. This is an arbitrary transfer, with no allegations other than excess work for the Federal Police of Paraná.

Lula’s defence immediately appealed, arguing the pending recourse of a habeas corpus in favour of Lula, which must also be decided by the STF. The media speculate that the judge might be conniving with another judge of São Paulo, to send Lula to a common jail, in the city of Tremembé, in the interior of São Paulo State, a place that does not have a senior-level cell, to which Lula has a right as ex-President.

Meanwhile, as if all that were not enough, in the present turmoil that Brazil has become, the government of Bolsonaro now needs to answer for various outlandish declarations in recent days, summoned by the Judicial Power. One of these is his statement that Fernando Santa Cruz, father of the President of the Order of Brazilian Lawyers (OAB), did not die under torture and incinerated in a cement factory, as the documents of the ex military dictatorship confirm, but that instead he was killed by his co-partisans of the organization AP (Acción Popular, movement of Catholics of the left), for having disobeyed an order not to travel from Recife to São Paulo.

This is one of many imbecile declarations that make even journalists of the right wonder what is wrong with the Brazilian political system that allows someone like him to be elected President of the country. They forget that they themselves are part of the perverse mechanisms that prevented Lula from wining in the elections in the first round, and that opened the way to a monstrous operation that allowed this election that leaves the country exposed to behaviour that threatens the whole presidential protocol.

What everyone is asking is whether, in the face of the absurd declarations and behaviour of the Lava Jato coordinators, it is only Delagnol who will fall, or if it will also bring down Moro, and with the two of them, the Lava Jato operation itself. With a weakened Lava Jato, the leaders of the operation are wondering what to do with Lula. This attempt to transfer him to much worse conditions appears to be a response. Although it may not work out, it detracts attention from the serious problems of the government and the revelations that compromise the public image of those who have presented themselves as the vigilantes of Lava Jato, and who now could face accusations, trials and possible sentences against them.

08/08/2019

(Translated for ALAI by Jordan Bishop)

- Emir Sader, Brazilian Sociologist and Political Scientist, is the Coordinator of the Laboratorio de Políticas Públicas de la Universidad Estadual de Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).