Afraid, sad and not wanting to eat | First night …

Former Brazilian President Michel Temer spent his first night in detention for corruption in a federal police room in Rio de Janeiro, while waiting for a hearing room to handle a habeas corpus in order to obtain his freedom. The former de facto president was arrested on Thursday as the alleged leader of a criminal organization that allegedly embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars in four decades.

The 78-year-old Conservative politician spent his first night in a "special" room of about 20 square meters, with no window, but with private bath and air conditioning, located in the headquarters of the Federal Police , in the surrounding area. Port of Rio de Janeiro. According to the newspaper O Globo, on his first night, Temer did not eat dinner and he was shot dead.

Since his capture, the exmandatario has twice received the visit of an important ally, Carlos Marun, who was his minister of the Government Secretariat. After his last visit, Marun told the press that Temer was not happy with his detention, which he described as illegal and arbitrary. "He is well treated, but he is very sad and is waiting for the situation to be reversed as soon as possible," added Marún. However, he reiterated that the exmandatario maintained his trust in justice. Yesterday, during an interrogation, Temer did not want to answer questions from the authorities and preferred to remain silent. Temer was arrested in Sao Paulo and transferred to Rio de Janeiro by decision of Judge Marcelo Bretas, head of the mega-operation against corruption led by Lava Jato.

The case originated from the remand order of Temer and seven other people, of which the former Minister of Mines and Energy, Moreira Franco, is related bribes received in 2014 in exchange for employment contracts at the Angra 3 nuclear power plant in the south of the country. The judge investigates "crimes of corruption, embezzlement and money laundering", with "illegal payments" made by an employer "to the criminal organization headed by Michel Temer", said the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF).

Temer was the nucleus of this network when he was Secretary of Public Security in Sao Paulo, in the mid-1980s, alongside retired Colonel Joao Baptista Lima Filho, who accompanied him throughout his career and was also arrested. Thursday "Colonel Lima and Michel Temer have been working together since the 1980s," said prosecutor Fabiana Schneider at a press conference.

Preventive detention is justified, according to the MPF, by the suspicion that the alleged group is "in full activity". "The investigations suggest that the criminal organization has committed various crimes involving several state agencies and state companies, having obtained the promise, payment or deviation of the organization of 1,800 million reais" (approximately $ 470 million at the current exchange rate). ), "Said the MPF in a statement.

Temer and Moreira Franco are members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), a party which, since the end of the military dictatorship (1964-1985), was an ally of almost all governments, whether they were leftist or center-right.

Temer himself was from 2011 to 2016 vice president of Dilma Rousseff, which he replaced in May 2016 when the left-wing leader was removed from office by a parliamentary state coup for an offense minor in the management of public accounts. After recording an unpopular record on January 1, he entrusted the post to the election winner at the end of last year, the ultra – right Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro said in Santiago, Chile, where he participates in a regional forum, that the imprisonment of Temer is the result of "political agreements concluded in the name of governability".