Secretary of Public Security of Rio de Janeiro during an intervention in the public security of the state in 2018, Richard Nunes says that the responsibility for the appointment of Rivaldo Barbosa lies with him “and no one else”
RIO – Appointed Secretary of Public Security of Rio de Janeiro by the then intervener in the area in the State in 2018, General Walter Braga Netto, General Richard Nunes, future chief of staff of the Army, claims to be responsible for the appointment of the delegate Rivaldo Barbosa, arrested on charges of having planned the death of Marielle Franco, as head of the Civil Police during the federal intervention is his “and no one else’s”. The four-star Army general’s version contradicts the version presented by the Federal Police (PF), in the final report on the councilor’s murder, according to which Rivaldo held the position due to “political interference”.
In an interview with Estadao, Richard Nunes says he is surprised by the alleged involvement of Rivaldo Barbosa, appointed head of the Civil Police the day before Marielle’s death, in the murder of parliamentarian and driver Anderson Gomes. According to the general, Rivaldo had “a very considerable record of service” and was considered “a respected and very well accepted name throughout society” of the time.
The proposal for Rivaldo Barbosa as head of the Civil Police was put forward by the intelligence sector of the Eastern Military Command (CML) in a list of five names. The organization had been commanded since 2016 by Braga Netto, who remained in office until 2019. As head of the LMC, he was appointed as Rio’s security intervener by the then president Michel Temer (MDB), for the period between February and December 2018.
Rivaldo wasn’t Nunes’ first option for the position at first. The general’s priority was to appoint delegate Delmir Gouvea to the position. The two worked together during a pacification operation in the Complexo da Maré, between 2014 and 2015. But Gouvea did not accept the invitation.
Without a personal option, Richard Nunes turned to the CML’s nomination list. The general specifies that the undersecretariat of Intelligence, an organ of the Public Security Secretariat of Rio, “contraindicated the name of Rivaldo”, but maintained the appointment given the previous services rendered by the delegate.
“Rivaldo was the head of the homicide division of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro. A delegate who had, perhaps, the greatest visibility among the delegates of the Civil Police and a very considerable record of service. A respected name who was very well accepted by all of society. So, at that moment, this is what I had. He accepted the invitation and fulfilled his mission. He was so respected that he was respected by Marielle’s family, who he knew, and by Marcelo Freixo himself. Furthermore, he is a ci “It’s a lot of speculation, a lot of things that don’t make sense. Are you trying to want to wear 2024 clothes in 2018?” he says.
Braga Netto’s lawyers argue that the latter had no interference in the definition of the Civil Police and that the general did not ask or seek suggestions from the LMC intelligence regarding possible candidates. “The general had no interference in the appointment of this delegate. It was the sole responsibility of the Security Secretariat. As for the fact that there was a search in the intelligence of the LMC, this search was not carried out by General Braga Netto nor at the request of General Braga Netto. I repeat: there was no interference.”
The intelligence department led by Richard Nunes contraindicated Rivaldo Barbosa. The general appraised him the reservations were not “based on objective data” and supported the appointment of the delegate to command the Civil Police. At the end of the investigation, the police highlighted the “passive management of the military at the head of Public Security in Rio de Janeiro”, the “lack of ability to manage the vicissitudes of the power game in Rio de Janeiro” and the “retention of Rivaldo even after contraindication” as factors indicating Richard Nunes’ management in appointing the delegate.
“It is an absolutely normal choice. Speculation began that I would not listen to one or another intelligence counter-indication. There is no such thing. Intelligence counter-indication normally exists when we are faced with a list of names, of which there is some data that is presented. ‘Oh, this has this, it has that,’ but these are data to be considered. It is not a ready-made, finished investigation, in which we can do an injustice by considering it as something concrete and thereby harm a person”, says Nunes regarding Rivaldo’s contraindication for the position.
For the general, Rivaldo’s choice was “the result of criteria” established by him and to which, now, “we cannot want to go back in time”.
“I had a decision to make in a short period of time. I couldn’t wait for something like what was presented to me to be clarified. It’s not so much that it just happened now. This taking responsibility thing is up to me. I always took over at that time and I continue now. I was the one who appointed Rivaldo. I was not subjected to any interference. It was a decision based on criteria that I had established. Now, after everything happened… … look, now it’s another time, now it’s another time No, I can’t keep wanting to go back in time with what I know now,” he says.
Motivation for Marielle’s murder
In December 2018, in an interview with Estadão, Richard Nunes stated that Marielle was killed because the militiamen believed she could disrupt land-grabbing business of land in the western area of the city. At the time, the investigation into the case was still in its infancy. The executioners Ronnie Lessa and Élcio Queiroz had not even been arrested.
Nunes revealed that the crime had been planned as early as 2017, long before the federal government decided to implement a federal intervention in Rio. Six years after the crime, the general claims to have hypotheses about what he considered “a very plausible path”.
“I already had some assumptions based on what was presented that it was a very plausible path, that it would happen through this type of involvement (land regularization). It’s not something so definitive, but it was something plausible for that moment. Now these things came out. From then on I had no further contact because I left the operation. It was a clue, as was the fact that Giniton arrested the two perpetrators,” he says.
Source: Terra
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