Brazil Supreme Court Allows Release of Cabinet Meeting Recording
Former Justice minister says video shows president pushed him to replace police official
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday.
PHOTO: JOÉDSON ALVES/SHUTTERSTOCK
By
Jeffrey T. Lewis
and
Luciana Magalhaes
Updated May 22, 2020 8:32 pm ET
The former minister, Sérgio Moro, who resigned last month after tangling with the president, had publicly said that the video would show that Mr. Bolsonaro pressured him to change the head of the Federal Police in Rio de Janeiro state to protect his sons.
Moments after the ruling was issued, Brazilian television networks aired an April 22 cabinet meeting in which Mr. Bolsonaro hurls profanities at his adversaries and appears to tell Mr. Moro that he wanted him to replace officials in Rio.
Mr. Bolsonaro later removed the Federal Police chief, Mauricio Valeixo, prompting Mr. Moro to resign. Mr. Valeixo’s replacement appointed a new chief in Rio.
“I will not wait for them to [mess with] my whole family or my friends for the hell of it,” Mr. Bolsonaro said in the meeting, according to a transcript released by the court. “There will be a change. If we can’t switch him, we’ll change his boss. If we can’t change the boss, we’ll change the minister. This is going to end, we’re not joking here.”
Hours after the video was released, the president defended himself in a televised address. “Which part of the video proves that I was trying to interfere with the police in Rio or in other police in Brazil? There was nothing there,” he said.
Two of the president’s three eldest sons have been under investigation in Rio de Janeiro, where they live. Congress is investigating a third son. All three are elected officials who are being investigated for suspected crimes including skimming from office budgets and other potentially illegal acts. They have denied wrongdoing.
The ruling comes as crisis engulfs Brazil and its right-wing government. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 21,000 people, spreading quickly because health experts say Mr. Bolsonaro declined to call for the kind of lockdown measures they advocated. Brazil is now second in the world for confirmed infections, behind the U.S. The president’s approval rating has fallen from 34% in February to 25% in a poll taken from May 16 to May 18 by Ipespe, a polling firm.
The video from the cabinet meeting is potentially politically damaging for Mr. Bolsonaro and other officials.
In one exchange, the education minister, Abraham Weintraub, rails against the high court, saying, “If it were up to me, I would throw all those bums in jail.” Mr. Weintraub, who comes from the hard-line faction of the cabinet, goes on to insult political opponents on Brazil’s left.
“I hate the Communist Party,” he said in the video. He also criticizes what he calls privileges for minorities in Brazil, including blacks, Japanese-Brazilians and native Brazilians. “I hate the term indigenous peoples,” he said.
Mr. Weintraub wasn’t immediately available for comment.
The video provided a rare look at cabinet ministers and the president fulminating against political opponents, using terms for animal feces to refer to São Paulo Gov. João Doria, Rio Gov. Wilson Witzel and the mayor of Manaus, Arthur Virgilio. All three conservative politicians ignored Mr. Bolsonaro’s call to reopen their states for business in the midst of the pandemic.
In the video, the president warns his ministers that he only wants right-wing warriors like himself in his cabinet, people who are in favor of “family, God, Brazil, arms, freedom of expression and a free market.” Those who don’t agree with him should leave, he said.
“Let’s talk openly about the question of arms here,” the president said in the video. “I want everyone [in Brazil] to be armed. An armed people will never be enslaved.”
He also complained about the praise some of his cabinet members get from the press, while he is criticized.
Carlos Melo, a political-science professor at São Paulo-based school of business Insper, said that the salty language and denigrating terms used by Mr. Bolsonaro in the video “are horrible.” But he said that the president would likely still retain the support of his fervent base.
“It is horrible for the ones who do not like him, but the ones who like him may say he is authentic,” he said.
Corrections & Amplifications
Mauricio Valeixo was the Federal Police chief in Brazil. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Mr. Valeixo was the Rio police chief. (Corrected on May 22, 2020)
Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at [email protected] and Luciana Magalhaes at [email protected]
Former Justice minister says video shows president pushed him to replace police official
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday.
PHOTO: JOÉDSON ALVES/SHUTTERSTOCK
By
Jeffrey T. Lewis
and
Luciana Magalhaes
Updated May 22, 2020 8:32 pm ET
SAVE
PRINT
TEXT
The former minister, Sérgio Moro, who resigned last month after tangling with the president, had publicly said that the video would show that Mr. Bolsonaro pressured him to change the head of the Federal Police in Rio de Janeiro state to protect his sons.
Moments after the ruling was issued, Brazilian television networks aired an April 22 cabinet meeting in which Mr. Bolsonaro hurls profanities at his adversaries and appears to tell Mr. Moro that he wanted him to replace officials in Rio.
Mr. Bolsonaro later removed the Federal Police chief, Mauricio Valeixo, prompting Mr. Moro to resign. Mr. Valeixo’s replacement appointed a new chief in Rio.
“I will not wait for them to [mess with] my whole family or my friends for the hell of it,” Mr. Bolsonaro said in the meeting, according to a transcript released by the court. “There will be a change. If we can’t switch him, we’ll change his boss. If we can’t change the boss, we’ll change the minister. This is going to end, we’re not joking here.”
Hours after the video was released, the president defended himself in a televised address. “Which part of the video proves that I was trying to interfere with the police in Rio or in other police in Brazil? There was nothing there,” he said.
Two of the president’s three eldest sons have been under investigation in Rio de Janeiro, where they live. Congress is investigating a third son. All three are elected officials who are being investigated for suspected crimes including skimming from office budgets and other potentially illegal acts. They have denied wrongdoing.
The ruling comes as crisis engulfs Brazil and its right-wing government. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 21,000 people, spreading quickly because health experts say Mr. Bolsonaro declined to call for the kind of lockdown measures they advocated. Brazil is now second in the world for confirmed infections, behind the U.S. The president’s approval rating has fallen from 34% in February to 25% in a poll taken from May 16 to May 18 by Ipespe, a polling firm.
The video from the cabinet meeting is potentially politically damaging for Mr. Bolsonaro and other officials.
In one exchange, the education minister, Abraham Weintraub, rails against the high court, saying, “If it were up to me, I would throw all those bums in jail.” Mr. Weintraub, who comes from the hard-line faction of the cabinet, goes on to insult political opponents on Brazil’s left.
“I hate the Communist Party,” he said in the video. He also criticizes what he calls privileges for minorities in Brazil, including blacks, Japanese-Brazilians and native Brazilians. “I hate the term indigenous peoples,” he said.
Mr. Weintraub wasn’t immediately available for comment.
The video provided a rare look at cabinet ministers and the president fulminating against political opponents, using terms for animal feces to refer to São Paulo Gov. João Doria, Rio Gov. Wilson Witzel and the mayor of Manaus, Arthur Virgilio. All three conservative politicians ignored Mr. Bolsonaro’s call to reopen their states for business in the midst of the pandemic.
In the video, the president warns his ministers that he only wants right-wing warriors like himself in his cabinet, people who are in favor of “family, God, Brazil, arms, freedom of expression and a free market.” Those who don’t agree with him should leave, he said.
“Let’s talk openly about the question of arms here,” the president said in the video. “I want everyone [in Brazil] to be armed. An armed people will never be enslaved.”
He also complained about the praise some of his cabinet members get from the press, while he is criticized.
Carlos Melo, a political-science professor at São Paulo-based school of business Insper, said that the salty language and denigrating terms used by Mr. Bolsonaro in the video “are horrible.” But he said that the president would likely still retain the support of his fervent base.
“It is horrible for the ones who do not like him, but the ones who like him may say he is authentic,” he said.
Corrections & Amplifications
Mauricio Valeixo was the Federal Police chief in Brazil. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Mr. Valeixo was the Rio police chief. (Corrected on May 22, 2020)
Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at [email protected] and Luciana Magalhaes at [email protected]
