The Federal Public Ministry in Rio de Janeiro requested this Monday (6) the impeachment of governor Cláudio Castro, the vice-governor, Thiago Pampolha; and the president of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj), Rodrigo Bacellar, for abuse of political and economic power and irregularities in payrolls at the State Center for Statistics, Research and Training of Public Servants of Rio de Janeiro (Fundação Ceperj) and the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj) in 2022.
The Regional Electoral Prosecutor’s Office (PRE-RJ) also requested the ineligibility of Castro and Bacellar for eight years, starting from the 2022 elections. Thiago Pampolha’s ineligibility for eight years was not requested, as he had joined Castro’s ticket shortly before of the 2022 election.
In the 117-page document, the regional electoral prosecutor, Neide Cardoso de Oliveira, and the substitute regional electoral prosecutor, Flávio Paixão, argue that documents and witnesses prove the electoral use of the public machine and of temporary employees such as electoral cables for the Castro and of politicians from the government’s allied base.
“The scheme had the clear objective of using the state public machinery, at the exclusive disposal of those investigated, to allow the flow of public resources, giving them the appearance of legality, but which, in truth, were unduly used to promote their candidacies and co-opting votes for their respective victories, at the polls, serving vested personal interests and the perpetuation of the aforementioned politicians in elected positions in the State of Rio de Janeiro, overriding the collective interest”, wrote the prosecutors.
In relation to the Ceperj Foundation and Uerj, prosecutors say that investigations indicate that the institutions’ projects were used to “recruit thousands of Rio de Janeiro citizens” in favor of candidates in the 2022 elections.
The prosecutor’s office also requested the ineligibility for eight years of another six people being investigated: state deputy Léo Vieira, federal deputies Aureo Ribeiro and Max Lemos, the Secretary of Government, Bernardo Rossi, and Gutemberg’s Paula Fonseca and Marcos Venissius da Silva Barbosa, without a parliamentary mandate.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the 12 defendants in the case – nine politicians and the then public managers Allan Borges (undersecretary of the Secretariat of Infrastructure and Works/RJ), Patrique Welber Atela (secretary of Labor and Income/RJ) and Danielle Christian Ribeiro Barros (Secretary of Culture and Creative Economy/RJ) – used the State structure to obtain electoral victories in 2022.
Defense
In a note, the governor’s defense informed that he has provided all clarifications to the control bodies. Following the complaints, Governor Cláudio Castro ordered the extinction of the Ceperj Foundation projects, which are being restructured. According to the defense, the governor’s name is not mentioned in any of the statements. “Cláudio Castro’s defense trusts the Electoral Court and states that no new elements were presented in the case file to support the allegations.”
The president of the Legislative Assembly of Rio, Rodrigo Bacellar, reported that “the MP was guided by journalistic articles and that no evidence was produced that he committed irregularities”.
A Brazil Agency was unable to contact the others mentioned.
