Crackdown on Political Impunity

The Chief of Federal Police, Luiz Fernando Corrêa said that Operation Pandora’s Box (Caixa de Pandora) sent a message to the political elite that use their power for personal gain.

The Police Chief also said that the fact governor José Roberto Arruda is in prison is a result of the perfecting and streamlining of the institutions fighting crime and corruption that, according to him, are now united to stop the misappropriations of public money and dismantle the groups that have infiltrated the federal government.

– There is no longer impunity in this country – said Corrêa, for whom the investigations into the monthly bribes for votes scandal (mensalao) by the DEM in the Federal District has sent a message to the political class.

– What happened is good for democracy. When the State shows the capacity to react, leva um alento para o cidadão. And it is a good thing this happened in an election year, as citizens will pay more attention – added the Police Chief.
Led by the High Court of Justice (STJ), the inquiry that cracked the corruption scheme in the Federal District is one of the first initiatives combining the Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Police in an investigation against those in power. Praised by judges in both the STJ and the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the work done by the police and attorneys served to strengthen Corrêa’s thesis of building a more efficient Federal Police force to find the evidence against white-collar and political criminals.

– There is no one who can escape such concrete proof – said the police chief.

On taking over the Federal Police in 2007 from Paulo Lacerda – who inaugurated the era of repressing white-collar crime – Corrêa radically changed the strategy used by the police. Instead of large operations centralized in Brasilia, he gave autonomy to district station chiefs, who can now lead investigations.

Corrêa also reduced the number of requests for temporary imprisonment and advised police officers to opt for preventative warrants, which are normally granted by the legal system when the evidence against the perpetrator is more solid.

Another mark of his  management style is the end of the “dramatization” of prisons, drastically reducing the exposure of those incarcerated, be they politicians or common criminals. The last time this happened was during Operação Satiagraha, when the former mayor Celso Pitta (falecido) was filmed in his pajamas during his prison stay by TV Globo.

– This was the way things were when I took over – said Corrêa, who headed up the Federal Police when the investigations that resulted in Daniel Dantas, owner of Grupo Opportunity, being put in prison twice within 12 hours, between July 8 and 9, 2008 before being released, were already underway.

Although with different results, Satiagraha and the DEM mensalão are similar in one respect. In both cases the targets of the investigation tried to bribe the witnesses and were imprisoned. The proof against Arruda, however, was stronger and the STJ ordered his imprisonment. Although an investigation has been opened by the Federal Ministry of Justice, the two entities work together.

– The operation shows that the two institutions acted correctly. The result was a more qualified denouncement, and one in which the focus was on the quality of the proof – that it was watertight evidence. This case is pedagogic in nature – said the police chief, who reinforced the impersonal nature of the investigations.

– We seek to find the facts.

We are not hunting people – said  Correa, under whose watch the police put an serving governor behind bars. According to him, the investigations will go deeper and no contract between the government, Federal District government and private companies will be left unexamined.