Amid the crisis, Aras could end Lava Jato in August.
According to sources, the crisis between Lava Jato and the Attorney General's Office stems from Attorney General Augusto Aras's decision in August on whether to extend or allow the Paraná task force to be dismantled.
247 - The trigger for the crisis between the Lava Jato prosecutors in Curitiba and the PGR (Attorney General's Office) was a visit by Deputy Attorney General Lindôra Araújo to Paraná last week. Analysts believe the exchange of accusations could represent the end of the task force, which may be shut down next month. This is because Attorney General Augusto Aras will decide in August whether to extend or allow the Paraná Lava Jato operation to be dismantled.
Aras' decision regarding the fate of Lava Jato requires the approval of the Superior Council of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, of which the Attorney General is president. The Lava Jato task force was created in 2014.
"Every year, around the time the Lava Jato investigation's injunction expires, these kinds of news stories appear. But there's a lot of politics involved in this type of discourse as well," a source from the Attorney General's Office told UOL. "This year, they [Lava Jato] fabricated this accusation about Lindôra's visit," the source added.
According to reports, sources linked to the Lava Jato task force in Paraná believe that Aras has no intention of maintaining the operation and, therefore, he is focused on finding flaws in the task force's actions and has been working towards the creation of a central anti-corruption body within the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Brasília.
According to the Attorney General's Office, the pressure exerted by the Lava Jato operation in Curitiba aims to prolong its existence and boost Sergio Moro, who was responsible for the operation in the first instance of the Federal Court, transforming it into political capital for the former judge and his political ambitions.