Jean Wyllys: Temer's arrest is a veiled threat from Moro to Rodrigo Maia.

RFI - Former federal deputy Jean Wyllys, who has been on a busy schedule in Paris for about a week, gave an exclusive interview to RFI this Thursday (21). He commented on the arrests of former Brazilian president Michel Temer and former minister Moreira Franco, which he described as a “tug-of-war between political factions that carried out the 2016 coup”. Wyllys also spoke about exile, political refuge, plans for the future and the government of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.

RFI: A writer much loved by the French, Victor Hugo, said that "exile is a long insomnia." What has your experience been like?
Jean Wyllys: I say that I haven't yet experienced the heaviest and hardest side of exile, the moment when grief will truly arrive, the melancholy. I'm still reeling from the impact of the news that I've given up my third term. I'm in the eye of the storm. The eye of the storm is calm, but it's also the most dangerous place. I'm trying to prepare my internal structures for that moment, having weathered the initial buzz of the news, of this denunciation that needs to be made abroad about what's happening in Brazil. I'm preparing myself for that long insomnia that Victor Hugo spoke of regarding exile.

RFI: In an interview with French television, Yann Barthès, host of the program Quotidien, stated that you had become the main symbol of opposition to the Bolsonaro government, at least abroad. Do you agree with this statement?
JW: I agree, although that wasn't my intention. When I decided to abandon my third term, I was thinking about my life. The threats were very serious and had extended to my family. Parallel to the threats, there was a very heavy smear campaign that was destroying my public reputation and making me vulnerable in almost every public space in Brazil. I was living a half-life, and this was impacting my physical and mental health, so my decision is about defending my life. This decision had such a large political impact internationally, and since I am politically responsible, I decided to use this position I now occupy as a trench. I don't particularly like war metaphors, but I'll use one. It's a trench to defend Brazilian democracy and its minorities. I became this symbol of opposition to Bolsonaro, not because I initially wanted to, but I agree with Yann Barthès. In fact, it ended up happening.

RFI: You once said that Marielle Franco will defeat Bolsonaro. What did you mean by that?
JW: I meant that Marielle haunts like a specter, like in Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, she haunts Bolsonaro's fascist government. For me, the connections between Bolsonaro and the militias, the criminal organizations from which the hitmen who executed Marielle came, will become clear. The Public Prosecutor's Office and the press have shown these relationships. The President of the Republic lived a few meters from a cold-blooded hitman. How could Brazilian intelligence, the Federal Police, not know this?

RFI: Two former police officers were arrested as part of the investigation into the murder of Marielle Franco. Federal police cited former state deputy Domingos Brazão (formerly of the MDB party) as one of the suspects believed to be a possible mastermind. Do you think this is a concrete lead or a smokescreen?
JW: It could be a possibility. But it could also be a smokescreen, a scapegoat, a way to divert the attention of parliamentarians or hide the true mastermind. I find it curious that, shortly after the police presented Marielle's killers, Detective Giniton Lages was removed from the investigations. In other words, when the investigations move to a second stage and when all the evidence points to a close link between Bolsonaro's family and Marielle's killers, the detective is removed.

RFI: Former President Michel Temer was arrested as part of the Lava Jato investigations. Federal judge Marcelo Bretas, who ordered the arrest, even stated that Temer led a criminal organization. What is your opinion on this?
JW: My opinion is that Temer's arrest is nothing more than a mere move, a tug-of-war between the factions that carried out the 2016 coup, which benefited politically and economically from the 2016 coup. The arrests of Temer and Moreira Franco occurred in the wake of Rodrigo Maia's public humiliation of Sérgio Moro. Sérgio Moro's response was to mobilize his allies in Lava Jato to threaten Rodrigo Maia through these two arrests. In reality, Moro is making a veiled threat to Rodrigo Maia. This was Sérgio Moro's way of returning what Maia did, which was disqualification... Not disqualification, because Moro has no qualities whatsoever. Moro doesn't need to be disqualified; he is already disqualified by himself. A person who accepts being Minister of Justice for the candidate who benefited from Lula's imprisonment, having carried out that imprisonment himself, has no qualities whatsoever. I don't celebrate Michel Temer's arrest because it comes too late and is nothing more than another obscene act in the orgy of charlatans.

Watch the full video of the interview with Jean Wyllys at the RFI studios in Paris.