RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The head of the Rio City Council, Jorge Felippe Neto (PSD), decided to bring to the plenary session on Thursday, September 3rd, a motion to open an impeachment process against Mayor Marcelo Crivella.
The impeachment motion was filed by the opposition PSOL party, based on the denunciation of the existence of the so-called ‘Guardiões do Crivella’. On Monday, August 31st, news site RJ2 disclosed a scheme set up with city employees to remain on duty outside Rio’s municipal hospitals, to hinder reporters and prevent the population from talking and criticizing issues in the health area.
Twenty-six votes in the council are required to open the impeachment process. According to Jorge Felippe, the approval to submit the request to the plenary was approved by the General Secretary of the Council and by the Council’s Attorney General.
Summary
The RJ2 report claimed that:
- through WhatsApp groups, city hall employees are allocated to municipal health facilities in rotating shifts;
- in pairs, they try to hinder reporters looking for denunciations about the public health situation and to intimidate citizens in order to keep them from speaking ill of the city hall;
- RJ2 had access to the content of these groups and found that, after being deployed, they post selfies to show that they have reached the facilities;
- one of the employees is shown in several pictures alongside Mayor Crivella and has a monthly salary of over R$10,000 (US$2,000);
- when they succeed in blocking reporters, they celebrate in the groups;
- city hall does not deny the creation of these groups and says it does this to ‘better inform the population’.
Source: G1