(Geraldo Bubniak/Reuters)
Imagine if Robert Mueller was hanging out and taking pictures with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama while investigating Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.
That’s exactly what Brazilian federal judge Sergio Moro is doing. He has made frequent public appearances with the political opponents of former president Lula da Silva, all while leading an investigation into charges of corruption brought against Lula.
On a recent segment of CNN’s What in the World?, Fareed Zakaria interviews Moro. Zakaria opens the interview by saying that Moro is investigating what could be the biggest corruption scandal in the world. He says this scandal led to the 2016 impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff, who, along with Lula, is one of more than 80 politicians and business leaders implicated in a bribery and money laundering scheme known as Operation Car Wash.
Zakaria forgets to mention, however, that Rousseff is likely the most honest politician in Brazilian history. Not even her worst enemies can point to a single wrongdoing by her. Which is why many believe her impeachment was a new type of coup in South America. Not to mention that the investigation has nothing to do with the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.
Those who understand Brazilian politics strongly suspect that the Department of Justice is behind Rousseff’s impeachment as well as the corruption charges plaguing Lula and others.
Federal judges are proclaiming to go after “corrupt politicians.” Unfortunately, they only seem to target those politicians who are not aligned with American imperialist attempts to exploit Brazil’s natural resources, such as gas and oil. The “corrupt politicians” are the ones who don’t support privatizing Brazil’s public companies.
Zakaria also states that former senator Delcídio do Amaral, who was arrested for corruption in 2015, accused Lula of being a key leader in the bribery scheme. Again he fails to mention that after two years of investigation, prosecutors have not found a single shred of evidence against Lula.
That’s the Sergio Moro method of justice: He said, she said.
Sergio Moro
During the interview, Judge Moro mentions that he has a lot of “public support” for his investigation. But should such a complex operation be based on Facebook likes? Zakaria never questioned this; Unfortunately the people who bribe congress to rule in their favor also buy advertisements on the news.
Lula was arrested in April and sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of money laundering and passive corruption. The former president was given his sentence with any material proof of corruption to be found in 250,000 pages. In the future, those 250,000 pages will be used by law professors to teach the students what not to do.
Lula is by far the greatest Brazilian president of all time. When he became president, 54 million people didn’t have three meals a day. When he left, that number was down to 17 million. He built more universities than all of his predecessors combined. He stopped privatization of Brazilian public companies, and would not allow the US army to access Brazil’s Alcantara Launch Base. Even in prison, he is surging ahead in Brazil’s upcoming presidential election polls.
(Paulo Whitaker/Reuters)
Lula represents what Martin Luther King Jr. represents for the US, what Nelson Mandela represents for South Africa, and what Gandhi represents for India. He is a champion of the people, fighting for basic social and economic rights and equality.
CNN did a disservice to the news and democracy with a very poor interview with Moro, giving a platform to a man who is trying to silence and destroy the most important figure in Brazilian history.
History keeps repeating. If you fight against social injustice, you either end up assassinated or in jail.