Correspondent
Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil.
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The Attorney General of the Republic of Brazil asked the Supreme Federal Court, the highest court of justice, to open a case to investigate President Jair Bolsonaro, in the scandal of overbilling in a frustrated contract for the purchase of the Indian vaccine Covaxin for part of the Ministry of Health.
The request aims to determine if Bolsonaro committed the crime of prevaricate, that is, if he did not order an investigation of corruption after being informed of the matter by Deputy Luiz Miranda, one of his allies, on March 20.
The request was made by the deputy attorney general of the Republic, Humberto de Medeiros, and is the most important judicial act on corruption linked to the current president.
Bolsonarista deputy Luis Miranda, of the ruling Democrats party, and his brother, Ricardo Miranda, a career official in charge of imports in the Ministry of Health, said under oath before the Senate investigative commission that they notified Bolsonaro of the overbilling of 1,000 per month. cent on the purchase of Covaxin on March 20 at the Planalto Palace.
The request seeks to establish whether the far-right president, knowing of the crime, did not activate the Federal Police to investigate the complaint, in which the leader of the Government in the Chamber of Deputies, Ricardo Barros, former Minister of Health, appears linked by his lobbying power. by Michel Temer.
The government’s response
The Bolsonaro government said that it notified two days later, on March 22, to the then head of the health portfolio, General Eduardo Pazuello, today special secretary of the Presidency after being expelled from office on March 23.
The scandal
The contract with outsourced companies to buy Covaxin vaccines was suspended this week, after the explosion of the scandal, three months after that meeting between the Miranda brothers and Bolsonaro in the Government House.
The newspaper O Globo pointed out that there is fear in the Planalto Palace that deputy Miranda has the recording of the meeting he had with the president.
The attorney general, Augusto Aras, very close to the president, had asked the Federal Supreme Court to wait for the Senate commission to finish investigating to take up the case.
That is why the request incurs in aid to the head of state since it speaks of “lack of evidence.”
But Supreme Judge Rosa Weber sent him a letter saying that the Attorney General could not just be a “mere spectator” of possible crimes being committed.
This scandal about Covaxin was the first to explode in June, followed by another in which the American company Davati, dedicated to medical supplies, denounced a logistics director of the Ministry of Health for asking him for a bribe of 1 dollar for each AstraZeneca vaccine that was received. offered in an outsourced manner, in a contract that was never fulfilled.
Attorney General Aras had on Thursday dismissed denouncing Bolsonaro for omissions in the purchase of drugs during 2020, when he delayed the acquisitions of doses of CoronaVac and Pfizer due to his questions about vaccination.
But this time, part of the Supreme Federal Court has agreed on the need to investigate the Executive Branch in light of the revelations of the Senate parliamentary committee.
Bolsonaro dedicated statements, official speeches, dialogue with his followers and a Facebook live to accuse three court judges who officially met with presidents of political parties – including those who support Bolsonaro in Congress – to ratify the transparency of the system. electronic ballot box that Brazil has used since 1996.
“If they beat me with fraud next year, they will not hand over the presidential sash to another,” said the head of state, who maintained that former president Luiz Incio Lula da Silva can hardly win “if the printed vote is not incorporated.”
This Friday, Bolsonaro said that Lula is articulating support with political parties, promising ministries in exchange for not supporting the official demand to change the electoral system under allegations of past fraud of which until now he has not presented evidence.
The opening of the investigation reluctantly requested by the Attorney General – pressured by Judge Weber – adds to the “super request” for impeachment for 123 violations of the Constitution presented by the opposition of the right and left before Congress.
In a game of pressure and balance, the person in charge of authorizing the impeachment is the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, of the Progressive Party (PP), who said that there is no “materiality” of Bolsonaro in the crimes presented.
The pressure for Lira to remove the impeachment request from the drawer will be exercised in the streets tomorrow, with a demonstration, the fourth in 60 days, calling for Bolsonaro’s resignation, called by both the left and the right-wing opposition.
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