Perillo, regarding Cachoeira: "In good faith, I believed."

247 - In 2005, at the height of the Mensalão scandal, the governor of Goiás, Marconi Perillo, nearly set the country ablaze by declaring that he had spoken with President Lula about the existence of a scheme to pay monthly allowances to parliamentarians. Until then, Roberto Jefferson, who had denounced the scheme, had spared former President Lula and aimed his criticism at former minister José Dirceu. Perillo also used a witness, former congresswoman Raquel Teixeira, who allegedly had been pressured by the PT (Workers' Party) to also receive the monthly allowance. Since then, Lula has harbored a visceral hatred for Marconi – which will serve to fuel the theory that Operation Monte Carlo also has elements of conspiracy, with a strong political bias.

This operation, which has already brought down Senator Demóstenes Torres, is getting closer and closer to the governor of Goiás, Marconi Perillo, of the PSDB party. And the red alert has already been triggered in Goiânia. In an attempt to get out of the defensive, Marconi Perillo gave two interviews yesterday: one to TV Anhanguera, in which he said that politicians from all parties had relations with Carlos Cachoeira, and another to Folha de S. Paulo. In the latter, Perillo used an argument similar to that of Senator Demóstenes to justify having received the racketeer at the palace. He said he believed that Cachoeira had abandoned crime. “The important thing is that I didn't know. One day, at Senator Demóstenes' house, he even asked the businessman to tell me that he had left illegal activities. He said: 'I wanted to tell you that I am working legally.' In good faith, I believed him,” declared Governor Perillo to reporter Leandro Colon of Folha.

The argument is questionable because Cachoeira, at that time, was already a nationally known racketeer. First, for having made the tapes of Valdomiro Diniz. Second, for having been the main figure in a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into illegal gambling in Rio de Janeiro.

By all indications, the relationship between Cachoeira's group and the Goiás government was much closer. Sergeant Idalberto Martins, known as Dadá, who is currently imprisoned, participated in Perillo's 2010 campaign, as did journalist Alexandre Oltramari, formerly of Veja magazine. Both allegedly worked on a property belonging to Cachoeira, on the outskirts of Brasília. Furthermore, there is growing evidence suggesting that Cachoeira was a kind of partner or, at least, franchisee of the construction company Delta Engenharia in Goiás – and this company, which did not exist in the Cerrado region, secured contracts worth approximately R$ 250 million with Perillo's government. Moreover, Perillo could not possibly have been alerted by his civil and military police about the illegal gambling operator's activities, since Operation Monte Carlo revealed that several police officers were also in the racketeer's pocket.

Yesterday, the crisis brought down Eliane Pedrosa, chief of staff to Governor Perillo, who was also part of Cachoeira's so-called "Nextel club"—referring to the 15 cell phones brought from the US that were supposedly immune to wiretapping. With this dismissal, the governor hopes to stem the crisis, but there is great apprehension in Goiânia.