Vaccari and Aécio: two mentioned in Lava Jato. While one is arrested, the other calls for impeachment.

(originally published in Forum magazine)

Today's bombshell from the press, which dreams of a coup at night and tries to turn it into reality during the day, is that the opposition parties to the federal government (PSDB, DEM, PPS, PV and SD) are organizing to act jointly in requesting the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, even without any proof or indication linking her to Operation Lava Jato.

Moreover, Lava Jato, which until yesterday was treated as an investigation into corruption at Petrobras and which, for that reason, caused prosecutors to not even want to know about the Furnas list, is now turning its guns towards the accounts (believe it or not!) of Editora e Gráfica Atitude, responsible for Rede Brasil Atual.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Lava Jato, which includes among its indictees parliamentarians from various parties, among them the Speaker of the House, Eduardo Cunha, the President of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, and the former coordinator of Aécio Neves' campaign, former governor of Minas Gerais and current senator Antonio Anastasia, is becoming a second phase of Operation Mensalão, when all the focus was directed at the PT (Workers' Party).

In this context, the differentiated treatment in two emblematic cases is striking, not only by the media but also by the justice system. João Vaccari Neto, treasurer of the PT (Workers' Party), was arrested yesterday. Vaccari was mentioned in the testimonies of informants in the operation. Federal judge Sergio Moro went looking for something that could incriminate the PT member.

In the case of Aécio Neves (PSDB), he was mentioned by the money launderer Alberto Youssef, who said that the senator had received funds diverted from Furnas through his sister. The money launderer also stated that he collected bribe money from the company Bauruense, which provided services to Furnas, on two occasions. On one of those occasions, 4 million reais were missing, and he was informed that the PSDB had already collected the amount.

But the allegations regarding Aécio's involvement in the Furnas case were dismissed by the Supreme Federal Court at the request of the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot.

And now, free from any investigation, Aécio celebrated Vaccari's arrest yesterday and began to orchestrate Dilma's impeachment. And alongside him, with the same brazenness, was the president of the DEM party, Agripino Maia, accused of receiving R$ 1 million in bribes in a vehicle inspection scheme in his state, Rio Grande do Norte. If the reader wants to know more about the case, just read it. here.

The quality of a democracy is judged by the details. As long as prominent members of the PSDB party who are demonstrably corrupt and involved in major scandals are not arrested and treated like any other politician from any other party, it cannot be said that we live in a society of equal rights.

That is why, in a recent Twitter debate with Vinicius Wu, an advisor to the Ministry of Culture (Minc), Congressman Jorge Pozzobom (PSDB-RS) said: “Sue me. I'll go to court and, because I'm not a member of the Workers' Party, I don't run the risk of being arrested.”