The Federal Police are investigating a trip by former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres to Bahia, on the eve of the second round of the 2022 presidential elections. buying votes. However, there is suspicion that Torres traveled to pressure the PF to bar voters from voting in the region where Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, PT candidate, had more votes. The information was disclosed by the G1 website and by the newspaper O Globo.
With no prior agenda, Torres traveled to Bahia accompanied by then general director of the PF Marcio Nunes. There, he guided the PF superintendent in Bahia Leandro Almada to curb, together with the Federal Highway Police (PRF), electoral crimes. Torres’ presence caused surprise within the PF and was seen as pressure from the government of Jair Bolsonaro to interfere in the electoral process, reported the blog of Andreia Sadi, from the G1.
After the meeting, according to the journalist, a team from Torres sent a list of cities where the police officers should work.
According to columnist Lauro Jardim, from the newspaper O Globo, the list was drawn up by police chief Marília Ferreira Alencar, then director of Intelligence at the Ministry of Justice. The document brought the places where the PT candidate had received the most votes in the first round of elections.
According to journalists, Torres’ trip to Bahia took place one day after former federal deputy Roberto Jefferson shot and threw grenades at federal police officers who went to his house, in the interior of Rio de Janeiro, to serve an arrest warrant. The reason was a video that the former parliamentarian posted on the internet in which he offended Minister Cármen Lúcia, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), with profanity. At the time, Torres was scheduled by Jair Bolsonaro to go to Jefferson’s house to follow up on the case, but he backed down.
Despite Torres’ guidance, the former PF superintendent in Bahia did not comply with the order, according to Sadi’s blog.
On October 30, the second round of the elections, the then general director of the Federal Highway Police (PRF) Silvinei Vasques commanded several blockades on highways in the Northeast, in order to monitor possible irregularities in vehicles, which made it difficult for voters to arrive at the locations. of voting. The night before, Minister Alexandre de Moraes had prohibited the PRF from carrying out any operation that could affect the transport of voters. Vasques is investigated by operations and was removed from office at the end of 2022.
Since January 14, Anderson Torres has been in prison, investigated for alleged failure to control the anti-democratic acts of January 8. He was in charge of Secretary of Public Security of the Federal District, but left the country, bound for the United States, days before the coup acts.
In a note, Anderson Torres’ lawyer, Eumar Novacki, informed that he took over the former minister’s defense a few days ago and that the team is “studying the process and preparing a strictly technical defense”.
“The investigation records are extensive and, for this reason, we are not going to rush with comments of any kind or issue a position on any facts, whether new or not. Our manifestations will be made in the records”, he informs.
A Brazil Agency contacted the Federal Police and is waiting for a response.
Repercussion
The news reverberated among ministers in the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The chief minister of the Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency of the Republic, Paulo Pimenta, said, on the social network, “the siege is closing”. “First they found the draft of the coup at Anderson Torres’ house. Now, the PF found a report with the ballot boxes favorable to Lula in the former minister’s office, the exact places where the PRF carried out a blitz in the 2nd round. Bolsonaro needs to pay for his crimes!”, he said, referring to the draft decree to change the result of the 2022 elections seized by the PF at Torres’ house earlier this year.
In a post on a social network, the Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture, Paulo Teixeira, stated that “the plan to boycott the elections was found: Bolsonaro, through Minister Anderson Torres and the Chief of the Federal Highway Police, carried out a blocking plan the arrival of Lula voters at the polls in the Northeast”.
The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, said that, since January, the Federal Police “is carrying out all necessary and appropriate investigations”. “No naughty shows and in strict compliance with the law. Results are reported to the extent legally possible”.
