In a letter to Época magazine, Kátia denies "Roteiro do Charme" (Charm Itinerary).

Accused by this week's Época magazine of traveling to nine countries on "romantic missions" in the company of her boyfriend Moisés Pinto, Senator Kátia Abreu (PMDB), a candidate for re-election, wrote a letter to the magazine's editor-in-chief, Hélio Gurovitz, indignant about the article; "It is a very serious and frivolous accusation, not based on objective facts and data," she says; the licensed president of the CNA, Kátia says that none of the trips she made burdened the Senate and that the trips are related to the interests of agribusiness; "I have presided over the CNA since 2008 and have never been the target of any suspicion"; Kátia asks that Hélio Gurovitz publish the letter in the same space as the article "The Itinerary of Charm".

August 07, 2014, 19:53 PMUpdated May 27, 2019, 10:02 AM

Accused by this week's Época magazine of traveling to nine countries on "romantic missions" in the company of her boyfriend Moisés Pinto, Senator Kátia Abreu (PMDB), a candidate for re-election, wrote a letter to the magazine's editor-in-chief, Hélio Gurovitz, indignant about the article; "It is a very serious and frivolous accusation, not based on objective facts and data," she says; the licensed president of the CNA, Kátia says that none of the trips she made burdened the Senate and that the trips are related to the interests of agribusiness; "I have presided over the CNA since 2008 and have never been the target of any suspicion"; Kátia asks that Hélio Gurovitz publish the letter in the same space as the article "The Itinerary of Charm" (Photo: Aquiles Lins)

Tocantins 247 - Senator Kátia Abreu (PMDB), running for re-election with the coalition "Experience Makes the Change," wrote a letter to the editor-in-chief of Época magazine, Hélio Gurovitz, protesting against the article "The Charming Itinerary," published in this week's edition of the magazine.

The article, written by journalist Marcelo Rocha, recounts what he calls the "romantic parliamentary missions" of the Tocantins state representative to nine countries in the company of her boyfriend, Moisés Pinto, president of the CNA Institute. Época magazine states that Kátia and her boyfriend traveled to nine countries between February 2012 and April 2014. "In total, it was almost three months of absence," the magazine affirms. According to the publication, during this period the couple visited, among other destinations, Washington and Boston in the United States; Frankfurt, Germany; Shanghai and Beijing, China; Lima, Peru; and Brussels, Belgium.

In the letter, Kátia classified as "frivolous" and "extremely serious" the report stating that "suspicions that Kátia uses CNA and Senate funds for her own benefit are longstanding." "It is an extremely serious and frivolous accusation, not based on objective facts and data, which prevents me from even defending myself. None of the trips I made burdened the Senate. The position that the civil servant Moisés Gomes holds as president of the CNA Institute is unpaid, and I already knew him from his technical roles within the organization. I have presided over the CNA since 2008 and have never been the target of any suspicion, recognized for having given the organization an internal and external projection on the political scene that it had never had before," says the senator.

According to the magazine, Kátia was accused of using the confederation, of which she was a director in 2006, to finance her Senate campaign. In the 2010 elections, the publication recalled, a new accusation arose: this time, the Electoral Attorney General's Office (PGE) expressed its support for the removal from office of Congressman Irajá Abreu (PSD), the senator's son, for allegedly receiving illegal funds through the CNA for his campaign.

The senator said that all the trips she made were related to the interests of agribusiness. "Attached are some articles from the international press – in publications such as The Economist, Financial Times, L'Express, Time, The Guardian, among others – which clearly demonstrate the effectiveness and strictly professional nature of these trips, which include participation in debates in forums where Brazil, habitually absent, did not offer a counterpoint regarding its agricultural and environmental policies, which are generally questioned," the letter states.

Kátia refused to comment on her relationship with Moisés Pinto. "It's nobody's business," she wrote. "But regarding my public actions, I have nothing to hide, I deny every accusation and challenge the reporter to prove any of them," she challenged. Finally, the congresswoman requested that the editor of Época magazine publish the letter with the same prominence as the article.

Click here and read Senator Kátia Abreu's letter in its entirety.