RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – All governors directly elected in Rio since the end of the dictatorship, and who are still alive, have faced or are facing court lawsuits. Most of them have already spent time in jail, and one of them, Sérgio Cabral Filho, is serving sentences that, added together, exceed 300 years.
Only Leonel Brizola (PDT, 1983-1987 and 1991-1994) and Marcello Alencar (PSDB, 1995-1998), both now deceased, are not on the list. Three other governors – Nilo Batista (PDT, 1994), Benedita da Silva (PT, 2002), and Francisco Dornelles (PP, 2018) – are not on the list, but they were not elected to the post. Rather, they were Vice-Governors who automatically succeeded Governors Brizola, Anthony Garotinho, and Luiz Fernando Pezão, respectively.
Wilson Witzel, removed from office on Friday, now joins the rogues gallery of officials investigated for suspected corruption. He claims to be politically persecuted and says he is innocent.
Cabral (2007-2014) was arrested in 2017, in Operation Calicut, which triggered a political crisis in Rio de Janeiro. The investigations unfolded in other actions of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Police, have already led to 14 convictions – in all, 294 years in prison. However, this figure is likely to rise, because other investigations and criminal actions are underway.
Cabral’s successor, Pezão (2015-2018), was also prosecuted and imprisoned – when he was still a governor, at the end of his term at the Laranjeiras Palace. He was later released, after months in a State Police barracks, but is still defending himself in court. Both are charged with corruption, money laundering, and criminal organization.
Rosinha Garotinho (PSB and PMDB, 2003-2006) and her husband Anthony Garotinho (PDT and PSB, 1999-2002) also became acquainted with prison life. The ex-governor was arrested in November 2016 in Operation Chequinho on electoral corruption in Campos dos Goytacazes.
Garotinho was released, but the same operation led him back to prison in September 2017. At the time, Garotinho was arrested while broadcasting his program on Radio Tupi. He was soon placed under house arrest.
Two months later he was arrested again, together with Rosinha, this time under Operation Caixa D’Água, for the alleged illegal collection of election campaign funds. Both were released, but in November 2019 they returned to prison for a brief spell. The charge was overbilling at the city hall.
Wellington Moreira Franco (PMDB, 1987-1991), a former member of the Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer cabinets, spent less than a week in jail in March 2019 after the Federal Prosecutor’s Office denounced him for corruption. He was released by the Federal Regional Court for the 2nd Region (TRF-2).
Source: Estadão Conteúdo