https://www.nytimes.com/international/section/world
Petrobras finances (indemnity) Bolsonaro's campaign and reelection of mouse jr and allies in Paraná.
Dand looking for a vacancy in the Chamber of Deputies in 2023, state deputy Marcio Nunes, a trusted man and supporter of the governor of Paraná, Carlos Roberto Massa Junior, the PSD's Ratinho Junior, does not miss a chance to appear pleasing mayors and voters.
Nunes’ Instagram, who until March was also the state secretary for Sustainable Development and Tourism, is a lesson in how politics in Brazil continues to work on the basis of the distribution of small gifts in exchange for political support and votes.
Anyone who takes the trouble to look at Nunes' publications finds a profile full of ceremonies for the delivery of water trucks or garbage to mayors, who pose for photos and give thanks. “Thank you state deputy Marcio Nunes for the support!”, “The population of Brasilândia do Sul thanks state deputy Marcio Nunes for his achievements”, celebrate banners placed by advisors – and duly instagrammed.
There are at least 10 similar posts, including one on the profile of Nunes’ wife, Fatima Nunes, also affiliated with the PSD and deputy mayor of Campo Mourão, a prosperous agro-exporting city in the center-west of Paraná and the former secretary’s electoral base. “Thank you very much Secretary and Deputy @marcionunesparana for looking carefully at Campo Mourão!”, she ceremoniously thanks her husband.
One of the trucks delivered by former secretary and pre-candidate Marcio Nunes to the city ruled by his wife: all at home.
Photo: Playback/Instagram
Nunes is also a lucky man. His campaign gained weight when Ratinho Junior, son of the Bolsonarista presenter of SBT and candidate for reelection, ordered the purchase of 373 trucks of the type that his former secretary had been distributing (and for which both will continue to receive laurels).
The money for the purchase of the fleet came from a billion-dollar indemnity paid by Petrobras as part of the penalty for an environmental crime that occurred in 2000 in the Curitiba region. This is the largest indemnity of its kind ever paid by Petrobras. The problem is that the money should be destined exclusively for the conservation and recovery of the environment.
It is the result of an agreement signed between Petrobras, the Paraná Public Ministry, the Federal Public Ministry, Ibama, Instituto Água e Terra, IAT, and the government of Paraná. The arrangement took two long decades to be sewn and was finally confirmed in October 2021 by the Federal Court.
The large sum of R$ 1.39 billion is compensation paid by the state company for the spill of almost 4 million liters of crude oil in the rivers Iguaçu (which flows into the famous waterfalls) and Barigui. It was during a transfer operation from a maritime terminal in São Francisco do Sul, Santa Catarina, to the Getúlio Vargas Refinery, in Araucária, metropolitan region of Curitiba.
On that occasion, a part of an oil pipeline broke and caused one of the biggest environmental catastrophes in the history of Paraná and Petrobras. An expert investigation would prove that the leak lasted for 1 hour and 45 minutes before being discovered and being contained. The oil spread quickly and contaminated an area of 300 hectares, almost twice the area of Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo. Worse, it was a region of permanent preservation of the Atlantic Forest. Oil, by contaminating soil, water and air, left a trail of death among animals and vegetation in the region.
Digital photos: Caio Guatelli/Folhapress
The greed for money
CPursuant to part of the agreement it signed with the authorities and Petrobras, the government of Paraná created a group called the Council for the Recovery of Damaged Environmental Assets, CRBAL. In theory, it is there that representatives of the government and society should discuss how the compensation money for the 2000 disaster will be used. But it is in the council itself that the problems begin. Most of its members, according to a state law , must be secretaries of the shift government – in this case, that of Ratinho Junior, who, in addition to being a politician, is, along with his father, an agribusiness entrepreneur.
Marcio Nunes, the politician who displays banners in honor of himself on Instagram, was sworn in as president of the collegiate (today, he is out of office because he will contest the election). In addition to him, the secretary of Agriculture and Supply, Norberto Ortigara, the director-president of the IAT, the autarchy responsible for environmental policy in the state, Everton Luiz da Costa Souza, the attorney general of Justice, Gilberto Giacóia, and the state attorney general, Letícia Ferreira da Silva.
In addition, two seats were reserved for private non-profit entities chosen by the governor. The legislation does not specify whether these entities must be dedicated to environmental preservation. Thus, Ratinho chose Nelson Luiz Gomez, president of the Instituto de Engenharia do Paraná, the IEP, and Marcos Domakoski, president of the Movimento Pró-Paraná, a conservative entity founded by the Cunha Pereira family, owner of the Bolsonarist newspaper Gazeta do Povo and from RPC, an affiliate of Rede Globo in the state.
Speaking at one of the meetings in December last year, Domakoski – whose curriculum for dealing with environmental issues includes having been a professor of business administration, chairing the Paraná Commercial Association and amassing a handful of political appointment positions in public – made it clear who he represents.
“Pro-Paraná and the other entities that make it up, linked to agriculture, industry and commerce, are committed to collaborating with the state government for the proper use of these resources that benefit the environment and all people from Paraná”, Prometheus.
I asked the government what relevant contributions in the environmental area justify the appointments of IEP and Pró-Paraná to CRBAL. In its response, the Secretariat for Sustainable Development and Tourism, Sedest, quips and talks about “connection with the interests of Paraná, including in the environmental areas” and “notorious work in defense of the interests of the state” to justify the choice.
I also questioned the entities themselves about what curriculum they have to be on the collegiate. Pro-Paraná declined to respond. The IEP claimed to have 356 members linked to the environment and a master's program with dissertations related to the theme. However, it also did not present any concrete work on preservation and conservation, as I requested.
Meanwhile, part of the money – at least R$ 130 million – was already deposited in October last year. For comparison purposes, the budget of the state of Paraná in 2022 amounts to R$ 54.6 billion . Thus, the indemnity of R$ 1.39 billion placed within the reach of Ratinho Junior and his gang the equivalent of 2.5% of all the money that the state will have to pay for the maintenance of public services, the salaries of the servers of the three branches of government. and the investments desired by the government. In an election year.
Naturally, eyes gleamed at the Civic Center, home of the state administration. Immediately, the Ratinho Junior government presented 38 projects to CRBAL for immediate execution. But 32 of them have no relation to the purpose of environmental recovery expressed in the agreement, accuses the MP. The other six, even though they have “partial adherence”, contain “serious formal and material inconsistencies”, such as omissions on the areas that can be covered or lack of technical justification.
In the second meeting of the board, on November 8, just five days after the inauguration of the members and approval of the bylaws, representatives of Sedest and IAT put on the table lines of action and outlines of projects to start spending the compensation.
Photo: Caio Guatelli/Folhapress
Havaianas in hell
INOne of the first people to arrive at the spill site on July 16, 2000 was environmentalist Lídia Lucaski , then president of the Araucária Environmental Defense Association, Amar. She remembers well when she received the news, in the early morning hours of a freezing day in Paraná's winter.
“In a few we attended the place. The sight of the pipeline rupture was terrifying. The odor of hydrocarbons in the place was unbearable. How to document the tragedy? We took some pictures. It was what we had left in the midst of despair. Until then the press was not there. The area is precariously isolated, with few oil tankers traveling around the ruptured pipeline”, recalled Lucaski, in a written statement delivered by Amar's defense to justice.
The leak started in a place known as the Saldanha stream. On that cold July day, all you could see was a rapidly spreading “sea” of oil, said the environmentalist. With no support from the authorities and in the desperation to contain the damage, volunteers came forward to try to help contain the oil, even with flip-flops.
“It was the vision of hell. The oil reached and contaminated everything. There were workers collecting oil with buckets and brushes. They weren't in uniform, they wore ordinary men's clothes, many wore flip-flops!” recalled Lucaski.
“The use of PPE was a distant and unknown dream. They were herded without any criteria and, of course, none of this was allowed to be documented. In that branch of hell no federal, state or municipal authorities were seen,” she reported.
When oil found its way into the Barigui and Iguaçu rivers, in the bucolic rural district of Guajuvira, the tragedy soon reached the riverside communities.
“Local children, in Guajuvira, would bring us, with their hands full of oil, dead fish. They went barefoot into the contaminated mudflat, with cans and buckets, trying to save fish that were still alive, and they handed us over. We didn't know what to do, the chaos was total”, said the environmentalist in the court testimony.
“There were no clean rivers, streams or ponds nearby to save the fish. We tried in every way to explain to the children the danger of contamination, their families lived in the region, but it was impossible to contact them due to the urgency of other actions”, Lucaski recalled.
Photo: Gisele Pimenta/FramePhoto/Folhapress
Precipitation and waste
Fhi because of all this damage that Petrobras was forced to agree to pay the billionaire indemnity to the state of Paraná. The court agreement requires that two thirds (66.6%) of the total R$ 1.39 billion be invested in the State Environmental Fund, Fema – that is, almost R$ 931 million. The rest must be handed over to the Fund for the Defense of Diffuse Rights , controlled by a federal council that approves projects in selective processes.
In the agreement with Petrobras, it was defined that half of the indemnity destined to FEMA must pay for the development, implementation and execution of projects or programs related to the protection and recovery of degraded areas, such as slopes and river banks.
Another 40% needs to be allocated to implementation, expansion, protection, structuring, inspection and land tenure regularization actions in environmental conservation units and in ecological corridors - strips of vegetation that connect one conservation area to another, so that animals and seeds can move. Finally, the remaining 10% must be invested in actions where the spill occurred: half in the municipality of Araucária, the other in the Iguaçu River Basin.
Ratinho Junior's projects for the money, however, have little to do with it. The purchase of diesel trucks distributed by Secretary Nunes is the object of four projects gathered in a program called Paraná sem Lixões – Environmental Patrol. They are expected to spend R$ 78 million, equivalent to 5% of the indemnity.
With a majority in the CRBAL, the government did not hesitate to go shopping, counting on the money from Petrobras: five contracts were signed, on January 24 of this year, for the purchase of 53 trunk trucks, 71 compactor collection trucks, 35 cleaning trucks pit, 67 multi-crane trucks and 147 water trucks.
Noting that the government of Ratinho Junior was inclined to use the compensation money in electoral works and for agribusiness, the state Public Ministry rushed to ask the justice to annul all the deliberations made by the council, as well as their immediate amendment. It should be noted that the head of the MP, Gilberto Giacoia, is in the group.
“It is imperative that non-profit private entities with a seat on the Council must have as their foundation and purpose the protection and/or conservation of the environment, under penalty of incurring a possible misuse of purpose”, argued the promoters Alexandre Gaio and Sérgio Luiz Cordoni. in the petition presented to the court on January 11 of this year.
State deputies from the always small opposition to the state government got together and launched a petition against the composition of the CRBAL. In the document, addressed to the then secretary Marcio Nunes, they question the criteria for the choices and the contribution of representatives to the environment theme.
“The risk of the resource being managed with the participation of entities that are not related to environmental preservation and the purposes of FEMA is a deviation from purpose”, punctuate the parliamentarians, in a text headed by deputy Jorge Brand, who uses the name de urna Goura and is a member of the PDT and president of the Ecology, Environment and Animal Protection Commission of the Legislative Assembly of Paraná.
“These are entities that are aligned with the government. The government created a council that was completely pro-government and favorable to its interests. There will be no dissonant voice”, complained Goura, as he is better known, in an interview he gave me.
In the preliminary injunction, the Public Ministry highlights the “unusual and messy” way in which CRBAL has worked. Prosecutors say that, as soon as the money fell into the account, the government and IAT began to act in a “hasty and illegal” way to spend it on projects that were already part of the Paraná government budget.
“It is noteworthy [that] the adviser and Secretary of State for Agriculture and Supply stated that there were 'only 37 days left to finish the period for the commitment of resources', that 'the moment demanded speed' and that it was not possible to postpone the applications of these resources, as was recorded in the minutes”, narrates the prosecution.
On March 22 of this year, Federal Judge Flávio Antônio da Cruz, of the 11th Federal Court of Curitiba, accepted the MP's request and temporarily suspended the use of the indemnity until a public hearing is held so that the government can explain in detail the plans. of use of money.
Dissatisfied, the government appealed to the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region, the TRF4, but the federal judge Luís Alberto d'Azevedo Aurvalle denied last Wednesday, May 18, the request for preliminary release of the blocked money. The decision is temporary and is valid until the sentence of the 11th Court of Curitiba or a new decision by the TRF4 itself is issued.
Meanwhile, the bill for the trucks is on hold. The state would have to pay them by May, as provided for in the purchase agreements. Now, with the judicial suspension of the use of the fund, it should not be able to fulfill its obligations. Pressured by the debt assumed by his bosses, state attorney Antônio Sérgio Bione Pinheiro asked in April that the justice system “urgently” release the money so that Ratinho Junior can pay for the deal he rushed to do. There has still been no response to the request.
In any case, it is certain that the delay will result in money being wasted, since the contract for the purchase of the trucks stipulates the charging of interest of 6% per year on the total value of the contracts.
Photo: Marcio Nunes/Wikipedia
'Party with public money'
"INLet's assume for a second that this was coherent. Where are the programs of the cities [that will receive the trucks] for the issue of garbage? Where will he be taken? Most of these cities don't even have a landfill. It's a party with public money that is being passively watched by society”, said Angela Kuczach, executive director of the National Network Pro Conservation Units, the Pro UC Network.
“There is no denying that the destination of urban waste is something fundamental for the state government to resolve. But not with that money, which cost Paraná society so dearly that it almost lost the entire Iguaçu River basin. By a miracle, all that oil didn't end up in the Falls”, argued the environmentalist.
Deputy Goura reinforces that there is already a budget forecast for the purchase of vehicles in the state box, which makes it unnecessary to use the indemnity money for this. “That's not the primary objective and that's not what's in the plea deal. Garbage trucks are an obligation of city halls, they must be part of municipal policies drawn up in accordance with the National Solid Waste Policy. And there is already a budget forecast for that.”
The parliamentarian also drew attention to actions left aside by Sedest while the focus is on taking advantage of the indemnity. “We have a management failure in dealing with climate emergencies, for example. This should already have been foreseen. But what we have are actions aimed at electoral interests. The state fails to invest its own resources and even deviates from the purpose of the actions foreseen with this historic fine”, criticized Goura.
The MP, in turn, classified the purchase of the trucks that adorn Marcio Nunes’ Instagram as “mere vestment projects, aimed at the purchase of goods subject to depredation, without provision for inspection and control mechanisms of use, which are not linked to the to any structuring project that is relevant to what was agreed upon by the parties”.
Another project by Ratinho Júnior to use the indemnity also arouses curiosity. This is Rio Vivo, which, despite its name, is aimed in part at building rural roads “to meet the demands of mobility and the flow of agricultural production”, according to the promoters.
Without giving details or even indicating where the works will be carried out, the government says that the construction of the roads will “help the municipalities of Paraná in the expansion of alternatives for capturing, storing and distributing water, providing the protection of an ecologically balanced environment, through support institutional framework for improvements in water management and conservation systems, ensuring a sustainable hydrological cycle”. As? It is not known.
For Márcia Marques, professor of Ecology and Conservation at the Federal University of Paraná, UFPR, the government is throwing away a great opportunity. “I have been working in conservation for 30 years. We have never had such a good opportunity to change the state's condition in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem conservation. What seems to happen is that this money will be turned into dust, to cover small holes”.
The agreement made by the Public Ministry with Petrobras left gaps for the government to distort the use of the money, assessed Marques.
“[The agreement] is a bit general, but the biggest flaw is not charging the state government with a technical ballast in relation to the projects that may be presented. All should be technically justified,” he commented.
“The agreement could have been much more specific and effective in terms of results for the recovery of lost natural heritage if it had tied [the use of the money] to public policies, to well-established government programs”, the professor explained to me.
Zuleica Nycz, current president of Amar – she holds the position that was held by Lídia Lucaski, who helped fight the spill in 2000 – agreed that the deal is poorly made. “It has no restrictive clauses that can be applied automatically. So now, [opponents of the government's use of the money] are going to have to file a lawsuit,” she lamented.
I sent an email to the public prosecutor's office on February 21, requesting an interview with prosecutor Alexandre Gaio, from the Specialized Environmental Action Group, to question him about the agreement and the flaws pointed out by environmentalists. The prosecutor himself answered me the same day and asked me to send the questions in writing. They were forwarded on February 22nd, but I'm still waiting for a response until today.
Now oblivious to all of this, Marcio Nunes, who in Paraná is compared to former Minister of the Environment Ricardo Salles for the willingness he showed to let the agribusiness “herd” pass, continues in pre-campaign to federal deputy.
He bets on the popularity that trucks must gain him to face the wear and tear of authorizing the destruction of native vegetation on the coast , releasing fishing during spawning, spending public money in bars in Curitiba and Campo Mourão or buying meat for voters during the campaign. to state deputy (in this case, he was arrested for electoral crime).
It is in the hands of people like Nunes and Ratinho Junior that the fate of the billion-dollar compensation for the most serious environmental crime in the history of Paraná lies.
Source google images
source writing https://theintercept.com/2022/05/23/ratinho-junior-indenizacao-ambiental-billionaria-petrobras-rio-iguacu-parana/
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