[ad_1]
SÃO PAULO – Brazil's President-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, has appointed Justice Minister to fight corruption, saying Latin America's biggest country will step up its fight against endemic corruption, while fueling critics of the judiciary among its opponents.
Bolsonaro said on Thursday that Sergio Moro had accepted his invitation to run a strengthened version of the Justice Ministry from 1 January, which will also give Moro control of the country's efforts to combat the violence that has taken place. has made nearly 64 000 deaths year.
"His agenda against corruption and organized crime, as well as his respect for the Constitution and the law, will be our guiding principle," Bolsonaro said on Twitter.
Hardist Jair Bolsonaro won 55% of the vote to become Brazil's next president. The WSJ explains how the ex-captain of the army firebrand intends to change the largest country in Latin America. Photo: EPA
In a note sent by Bolsonaro's transitional team, Moro was quoted as saying that his appointment meant "consolidating the progress of recent years against crime and corruption and reducing the risk of regression," and adding that He had made the decision. for the greater good. "
Legal experts say the appointment of this highly respected judge to the post of minister is a sign of approval for the future government of Mr. Bolsonaro, who won the victory on Sunday with his promise to reinstate the law and the rule of law. ;order.
But this decision also fueled criticism of partisanship in the vast investigation into corruption in the car wash system that Moro helped lead, reinforcing the accusations of the left-wing labor party that the operation was taking place. Entered into a mild coup of law to take power.
As part of the Car Wash investigation, Moro condemned former party founder and president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to prison for corruption last year, putting him out of the election. Polls showed that da Silva defeated Bolsonaro in Sunday's presidential race if he was allowed to run.
"The new government made a very smart decision," said Thomas Trebat, director of the Columbia World Centers at Columbia University. "There will be some skepticism about this but it was a sign, just at the right time, that the judiciary will continue its fight against corruption."
While Mr. Bolsonaro has promised a crackdown on crime and greater freedom for police officers to shoot suspected criminals, Moro's appointment also suggests that his government will continue to respect human rights, M said. Trebat.
This appointment will probably help to legitimize the new government, but much will depend on the relationship between the two men, said Ivar Hartmann, a law professor in Rio de Janeiro.
"It depends if Bolsonaro will show deference to the people he will appoint, and not just stomp on them or dismiss them at the first sign of disagreement," Hartmann said.
Others criticized the move. "This is a tragic loss of legitimacy for an important process of investigating Brazil's deeply corrupt system," said Monica de Bolle of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based think tank.
"I'm expecting a barrage of court challenges on all of her recent decisions," she said of Mr. Moro. "It will be difficult to say that Car Wash has not been politicized at some point in recent years."
Mr. Moro's critics spoke of the social media posts by the judge's wife celebrating Mr. Bolsonaro's victory as president, as further evidence that the judge wanted to make sure the Workers' Party would lose the elections.
"It is now easier to understand Lula's incessant persecution in the carwash investigation," said Paulo Pimenta, leader of the Workers' Party in the lower house of Congress.
Mr Moro has long denied the politically biased character of Operation Car Wash, highlighting the limits of his jurisdiction. As a judge of lower jurisdiction, Mr. Moro was able to imprison Mr. da Silva because the former president had left office, which made him an ordinary citizen under the law.
However, judges of lower courts like him were powerless before many other politicians accused of corruption, including President Michel Temer, who still held positions in the government, which means that only the Supreme Court was competent to judge their cases.
As Minister of Justice, Mr Moro will be able to contribute to the achievement of the structural changes that he has long argued need to combat the root causes of corruption.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last year, Moro called on the government to end political appointments in state-owned companies and reduce campaign costs, among other measures.
"We should not believe that the problem of corruption can only be solved by the criminal justice system. It only deals with the most obvious symptoms, "he said in the interview.
He also raised his fear that without these changes, Brazil could follow the same path as Italy. There, the Clean Hands investigation in the 1990s, which he used as a model for Car Wash, resulted in a power vacuum, fueled some cynicism with regard to the judiciary and has finally done nothing to reduce long-term corruption, according to legal experts.
Mr Moro, a former law professor from southern Brazil who briefly studied at Harvard, won the case during his lifetime in 2014 when a local money launderer brought him to court. to discover a bribery ploy in a state-controlled oil company
Petrobras
.
Over the next few years, the case has grown considerably in Brazil's biggest corruption scandal, engulfing members of all major political parties as well as the highest levels of business.
The appointment of Moro as minister could also help Bolsonaro restrict the horse trade to the Brazilian Congress, said Leonardo Barreto, a political consultant at Factual, a Brasilia-based consulting firm.
"Bolsonaro sends a message to the political system (…) his government will not make concessions and does not want to accept any kind of indecent proposal," he said.
Mr Moro will also take control of public security for the government, which is currently under the supervision of a separate ministry that should be merged with the Ministry of Justice. Although he is widely respected by the police, he has little experience in the field, security experts said.
This appointment has accentuated the divisions between the Brazilians, already divided over the victory of Mr Bolsonaro, the former belligerent army captain, who held a series of offensive remarks about homosexuals.
"Moro is capable and brings something missing from the Brazilian government: academic and intellectual competence," said Lucas Broto, a 21-year-old model from São Paulo.
But the opponents of Mr. Bolsonaro saw in this announcement a proof of what they said was a witch hunt against the left.
"It is becoming even more obvious that he is trying to demolish the Workers Party," said Raquel Silva, a 28-year-old shop assistant, adding that she thought Mr. Bolsonaro was committed to "everything." destroy".
-Jeffrey T. Lewis contributed to this article.
Write to Samantha Pearson at [email protected] and Luciana Magalhaes at [email protected]
