Indictment against Lula on the same day as plea bargains against members of the PSDB party: a providential coincidence.

On the day that Temer, Padilha, Moreira, Alckmin, and other members of the PMDB and PSDB parties were targeted by the first Odebrecht plea bargain, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office decided to present yet another indictment against former President Lula, a coincidence that, whether calculated or not, served to divide attention and balance the damage. The accusation that he engaged in influence peddling in the purchase of the Swedish Gripen fighter jets defies the logic of the facts surrounding the US$4,5 billion deal to meet an Air Force demand that had been dragging on for over ten years. The former Minister of Defense at the time, Celso Amorim, considers the accusation absurd and astonishing and points out the reasons that led the Air Force to opt for the Swedish aircraft.

"I read with astonishment the news about this absurd accusation. The Gripen fighters have always been the Air Force's preferred choice, and the selection was strictly technical, based on an analysis that considered a combination of three factors: performance, cost (price plus maintenance), and technology transfer. Shortly before the announcement of the decision, in December 2013, the Air Force command reaffirmed, in a document that is certainly in the archives of the Ministry of Defense, the reasons that led them to opt for the Swedish fighters. There was not the slightest interference from former President Lula in this process," Amorim told 247.

 Throughout his presidency, Lula was accused of favoring the Rafale, a model that France was keen to sell to Brazil. This option would have contradicted the technical opinions of the Air Force, which leaned towards the Swedish Gripen. When it was expected that he would make a final decision during his term, in November 2010 Lula announced that he would leave the matter to his already elected successor, Dilma Rousseff. He preferred not to authorize such a large-scale deal at the very end of his administration.

Finally, on December 18, 2013, the government announced the purchase of 36 supersonic fighter jets of the Swedish Gripen model, at a price of US$4,5 billion, to be paid by 2023. There was no shortage of news reports that Dilma contradicted Lula in her preference for the French model, which had motivated the rapprochement with the government of Nicolas Sarkozy. Boeing was also competing for the deal. The Minister of Defense, Celso Amorim, made the announcement stating that the decision "was the subject of very careful studies and considerations."

Earlier this year, Operation Zelotes, shifting its focus from tax evaders who paid millions to CARF (Administrative Council of Tax Appeals) advisors to avoid billions in fines from the Federal Revenue Service, began targeting Lula. The indictment states that investigations concluded that lobbyist Mauro Marcondes lobbied for the Swedish company and used Lula's influence with Dilma. It alleges that he accompanied her to Nelson Mandela's funeral to "settle" with the leader of the Social Democratic Party and future Prime Minister of Sweden, Stefan Löfven, the purchase of the Gripen fighter jets. And with this, he secured for his son, also indicted, a paltry commission of R$ 2,5 million on a US$ 4,5 billion deal. 

There are some questions the prosecutors aren't asking themselves: One: Why didn't Lula, wanting a commission, close the deal when he was president? Another: If he lobbied Dilma and accepted influence peddling, why wasn't he denounced? And the participation of the Air Force, which endorsed everything, didn't raise any doubts or suspicions?

In a process to which the defense had no access, not even after the indictment was filed, logic and history should have no importance whatsoever. Much less the evidence, which did not surface, of Lula's influence peddling with Dilma and the Ministry of Defense.