Rio Governor Witzel’s Removal Could Benefit Flávio Bolsonaro

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After being removed by a Superior Court of Justice (STJ) injunction, Rio de Janeiro governor Wilson Witzel voiced attacks against President Jair Bolsonaro.

The Office of the Prosecutor General (PGR) had requested the governor’s arrest, but it was denied. Witzel said the body is specializing in persecuting governors, using shoddy investigations, and recalled that the deputy prosecutor investigating him, Lindôra Maria Araújo, is a friend of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.

The most significant aspect of Witzel’s removal to the Bolsonaro family is the command of the state Prosecutor’s Office. A governor who is better aligned with the President and his sons will be instrumental in the appointment of the new head of Rio’s Prosecutor’s Office, as current chief Eduardo Gussem’s term expires in January 2021.

The nomination of his successor will be made by the incumbent governor, Claudio Castro – should he be in office until then – and the new chief prosecutor will be the head of the inquiry against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and his ex-advisor Fabrício Queiroz in the salary-splitting kickback case. The behind-the-scenes moves for this succession have already begun at the state’s Prosecutor’s Office.

Elected with the Bolsonaro family’s support in 2018, Witzel distanced himself from the President for good by placing himself as a potential candidate for 2022 and was accused by the President of persecuting the Bolsonaro family through investigations such as the kickback scheme in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro (ALERJ).

Since then, Bolsonaro has been seeking ways to “retrieve” the political command of the state through political use of the PGR, according to Witzel.

The government is now in the hands of the deputy governor, who was also the target of search and seizure warrants, and who, from now on, must find ways to distance himself from the governor, reviewing names in the Secretariat and taking great care in new appointments.

Source: XP Política

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