Gay Senator Claims to Have Received Death Threat After Questioning Moro

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Senator Fabiano Contarato (Rede-ES) says that a few days ago he received an audio message via WhatsApp containing death threats. The sender identified himself and said he would be “stabbed.”

Contarato filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Police and the Senate Legislative Police but did not ask for special protection. He also filed a suit in court on charges of insult and slander — but did not reveal the individual’s identity to the reporter.

The threats occurred after Contarato confronted minister Sérgio Moro in a Senate hearing on June 19th, according to the Senator, now in his first term of office.

The first gay senator in Brazil, Contarato was elected with over 1 million votes and defeated one of the main allies of Jair Bolsonaro (PSL), former senator Magno Malta (PR-ES), who was advocating revocation of the decisions which allowed a civil stable union and marriage between people of the same sex.

Per the Senator, “He (Moro) claimed I was against the people, making it seem that I had said I was against Lava Jato. He distorted [what I said] and put me in this position that I am in today.”

“I get offensive messages all the time, saying that I’m against Moro and in favor of corruption, in favor of Lula. It has nothing to do with it. Absolutely not.”

The Senator stands for what he terms “depersonification” of the operation. “We have to make Lava Jato an impersonal matter. It was a victory of the Brazilian people,” he says.

Law professor, lawyer, and a federal deputy for 27 years, Contarato claims to defend the operation because, “for the first time in Brazil, politicians causing the most damage to the populace began to be arrested.”

“I am not even discussing the substance of the dialogue, what I am discussing is: what was the level of interference in the contact between the judge and the person interested in the conviction?”

The Senator says that the threats he has been suffering are also the result of the “behavior of Brazil’s chief executive, who spreads hatred and encourages violence.”

“The weapons decree is proof of this. He wants to arm the population in the name of the inefficiency of the government itself. The government confirms its inefficiency and transfers responsibility to the population, is that it?” he asks.

Contarato has already filed thirteen lawsuits in court against Bolsonaro’s actions– among which the weapons decree. “The population is unaware that it could be a victim of this decoy,” he said.

According to the Senator, the president has adopted a populist discourse and, through decrees and provisional measures, “violates elementary rights. Bolsonaro is a dictator in a full democracy.”