The head of the executive joins the list of former heads of the executive targeted by the Public Prosecutor on suspicion of corruption
RIO – The governor is the target of an investigation for alleged participation in a corruption scheme in Rio de Janeiro Claudio Castro (PL) had its electronic, fiscal and banking secrecy violated with the authorization of Minister Raul Araújo, of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), in the investigation into the misappropriation of resources and fraud in tenders for contracts social issues between 2017 and 2020. With a history of rulers arrested and persecuted by the courts, almost all directly elected state executive heads in Rio since the end of the military dictatorship have been subject to investigations, mostly for corruption – most of they spent time in prison.
The decision to break Castro’s secret was taken as part of Operation Seventh Commandment launched on Wednesday 20th. A brother of the governor was searched by the Federal Police (PF). Vinícius Sarciá Rocha is president of the board of directors of the State Development Agency (Agerio). The governor was not subject to the searches.
The PF investigates deviations in the execution of the Novo Olhar, Rio Cidadão, Agente Social and Qualimóvel projects between 2017 and 2020 – therefore before Cláudio Castro took over the government following the impeachment of former governor Wilson Witzel.
Former governors investigated for corruption
Castro joins the list of former Rio de Janeiro governors investigated for suspected corruption. One of the most emblematic cases of the bankruptcy of the state government of Rio de Janeiro. Among the elected governors, only Leonel Brizola (PDT, 1983-1987 and 1991-1994) and Marcello Alencar (PSDB, 1995-1998), now deceased, are not included in the list of those under investigation for corruption. Three others, Nilo Batista (PDT, 1994), Benedita da Silva (PT, 2002) and Francisco Dornelles (PP, 2018) – vices who temporarily took office – are also excluded from the list of former heads of the executive arrested.
Castro’s predecessor in the Rio government, Wilson Witzel, was accused of corruption in the health sector during the pandemic. By ten votes to zero, the ousted governor of Rio lost his position when his impeachment was confirmed in April 2021. Castro was then acting as acting governor and, with Witzel’s impeachment, became official in the position.
But the story of corruption develops further in previous years. When he participated in the Farra dos Nanapos in Paris in 2009, the then governor of Rio Sergio Cabral Filho it was in full flight. With the evening in the French capital he officially celebrated the Medal of the Legion of Honour received from the local government. I also secretly celebrated, in advance, the choice of Rio as the location of the 2016 Olympics, purchased with a bribe of 2 million dollars by members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), according to what the Federal Public Ministry would say years later.
The celebration was unveiled in 2012, when images of secretaries and businessmen with their heads covered in white cloths were made public during the event honoring the president. He became the symbol of the Cabral era, symbolically ended with the preventive arrest of him in November 2016, which opened the period of imprisonment of the former all-powerful Rio de Janeiro.
Cabral (2007-2014) He was arrested in 2016, during Operation Calicut, which opened the political crisis in Rio de Janeiro. The investigations, conducted in other actions by the Federal Public Ministry and the Federal Police, led to 23 convictions for a total of 430 years. By decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in December 2022, the former governor left prison and began serving house arrest.
Cabral’s successor, Luiz Fernando Pezão (2015-2018), he was also tried and arrested – when he was still governor, at the end of his mandate, at the Palácio Laranjeiras. He was subsequently released after months spent in a military police barracks. The two were accused of corruption, money laundering and criminal organisation.
Rosinha Garotinho (PSB and PMDB, 2003-2006) e Antonio Garotinho (PDT and PSB, 1999-2002) also visited the prison. The former governor was arrested in November 2016 as part of Operation Chequinho, for electoral corruption in Campos dos Goytacazes. Garotinho was released, but the same operation brought him back to prison in September 2017. On that occasion, Garotinho was arrested while he was making his program on Rádio Tupi. Soon he was placed under house arrest. Two months later, he was arrested again, together with Rosinha, this time as part of the Caixa D’Água operation, for allegedly illegally collecting electoral funds. Both were released, but returned to prison for a short period in November 2019. The charge was that they had invoiced too much to the Campista municipality.
Wellington Moreira Franco (PMDB, 1987-1991), a former member of the governments of Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer, spent less than a week in prison in March 2019 after the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office indicted him for corruption. He was released on an injunction from the Federal Regional Court of the 2nd Region (TRF2).
Source: Terra
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