President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva held a meeting with his communications minister, Juscelino Filho, on 6 March. Lula summoned Filho to the meeting after allegations of corruption reported in the national daily O Estado de S Paulo four days earlier, insisting that he would be dismissed if he failed to give a satisfactory explanation. Filho remained in his post after the meeting.
According to O Estado de S Paulo, the multiple allegations of corruption against Filho include neglecting to declare ownership of thoroughbred racehorses to the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), the country’s top electoral tribunal; using an air force aeroplane to fly to São Paulo at public expense for private business (attending a horse auction); using R$5m (US$960,000) of public money to pave roads leading to an estate owned by his family in the northern state of Maranhão; and falsifying helicopter passenger lists to justify expense claims.
President Lula said in an interview with BandNews that Filho would be given the opportunity to demonstrate his innocence. After the meeting with Lula, Filho said he had cleared up the “unfounded” accusations. Gleisi Hoffmann, the president of Lula’s left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), which leads the governing coalition, had called for Filho to be dismissed to avoid harming the government’s image, but Lula appears to have calculated that it would be equally damaging to lose a minister so early in his tenure, particularly given the impact on his coalition.
Filho was appointed as part of a congressional-level accord between his centre-right political party, União Brasil (União), and the government, giving the former a ‘quota’ of three ministerial positions. Among those who recommended him is the powerful president of the lower chamber of congress, Arthur Lira, of Progressistas (PP).
Filho is not the only minister under pressure. The tourism minister, Daniela Carneiro, has been accused of links to the Rio de Janeiro militias, vigilante groups run by off-duty police who are accused of illegal activities, including running protection rackets in parts of the city. Carneiro is also a member of União, but she was appointed directly by Lula outside the quota agreement with the party.
In his BandNews interview Lula minimised the charges, saying photographs of Carneiro together with militia members did not prove any wrongdoing. He added that he was very grateful for her support in last year’s elections because she was the only local politician who had supported him in the Baixada Fluminense neighbourhood, at a great cost to her and her husband, since they were subject to a campaign of persecution and harassment.
Militias
The relationship between the tourism minister, Daniela Carneiro, and the militias goes beyond appearing together in some photographs, according to media reports. Folha de São Paulo newspaper said she was politically close to a former military police officer Juracy Prudencio (‘Jura’), sentenced for militia involvement, as well as to Marcio Pagniez (‘Marcinho Bombeiro’), who is currently in preventive detention awaiting trial.