Lava Jato arrests Temer after defeats and loss of media prominence.

The arrest of former president Michel Temer and former minister Moreira Franco this Thursday, the 21st, comes immediately after a series of setbacks suffered by Operation Lava Jato.

The two were arrested on the orders of Judge Marcelo Bretas, from the Lava Jato operation in Rio de Janeiro, in an investigation related to the construction of the Angra 3 nuclear power plant. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the consortium responsible for the project paid bribes to Temer's group. Colonel João Baptista Lima Filho, identified as Temer's PC Farias, was also arrested.

The main setback for Lava Jato was the suspension, by the Supreme Federal Court, of the agreement between Petrobras and US authorities, by which the Brazilian state-owned company would pay amounts owed to shareholders who were harmed by the irregularities uncovered in the investigations. This agreement stipulated that 20% of the fine paid by Petrobras would remain in the United States and the other 80% would go to Brazil – corresponding to R$ 2,5 billion. The decision ended up suspending the subsequent agreement, signed between Lava Jato and Petrobras, and approved by Judge Gabriela Hardt, which transferred half of the amount destined for Brazil, that is, R$ 1,25 billion, to a private foundation, headed by prosecutors from the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Curitiba.

Another blow suffered by Lava Jato was the Supreme Court's decision that crimes such as corruption and money laundering, when investigated together with undeclared campaign contributions, should be prosecuted in the Electoral Court, and not in the Federal Court, as the Lava Jato members wanted. With this understanding, an investigation into Michel Temer and former ministers Eliseu Padilha and Moreira Franco, regarding the R$10 million donation to the MDB party, negotiated at the Jaburu Palace with Odebrecht, was sent to the Electoral Court of São Paulo.

The inquiry launched by the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Dias Toffoli, to investigate "slanderous, defamatory, and injurious actions" against the Court and its members also represents a defeat for the members of Lava Jato, especially the prosecutors. The case's rapporteur, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the same one who suspended the Lava Jato agreement with Petrobras, said that the prosecutors who criticized the measure can "kick and scream all they want."

The arrest of Temer and Moreira Franco also occurred one day after the Speaker of the House, Rodrigo Maia, criticized the former judge and Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sérgio Moro, the patron of Lava Jato, who had demanded, in messages sent in the early hours of Wednesday, the processing of his "anti-crime package." Rodrigo Maia called Moro an "employee of Jair Bolsonaro," and said that his package was a "copy and paste" of the project presented by the then Minister of Justice Alexandre de Moraes. A curious detail is that Moreira Franco is married to Rodrigo Maia's mother-in-law.

Obviously, it is not possible to establish a causal relationship between the aforementioned defeats of Lava Jato and the arrest of Michel Temer. However, there is no doubt that Lava Jato reached the scale it did largely thanks to media support. In recent days, its narrative had been faltering, as had its own credibility. A swift reaction was needed. This came in the form of the arrest of a former president of the Republic who, it should be noted, is corrupt and was not elected to the office, having usurped it through a coup that involved the purchase of dozens (hundreds?) of deputies, as made clear by the money launderer Lúcio Funaro in the plea bargain that served as the basis for Temer's arrest.

With the arrests of Michel Temer and Moreira Franco, Lava Jato sends a clear message to the political class as a whole. Whenever it feels threatened, Lava Jato will choose a new target to present to public opinion and reclaim its space in the media. And in this open war, in this institutional anarchy, it becomes increasingly clear that President Dilma Rousseff was the victim of a coup and that former President Lula is being held as a political prisoner.

After feeding the monster, the Supreme Court has already begun its shift. Will it have the strength to continue and finally bring Lava Jato into line with the parameters of the Constitution?