Anti-corruption entities asked the (Supreme Federal Court) to open an investigation to investigate the case of those who opened a road in the interior of Acre with illegal deforestation and invasion of indigenous land, as revealed by the Sheet on the 11th.
The petition signed by the Brazilian section of Transparency International, Transparency Brazil and Contas Abertas also requests that the STF activate the authorities so that the authorities “express themselves on the evidence and risks of using machinery acquired with amendment resources in carrying out illicit acts of environmental degradation”.
Still as a general measure, the entities requested that “the socio-environmental criteria analyzed by government bodies, in the evaluation of amendments for the acquisition of machinery, include a description of their immediate purposes, with the presentation of possible licenses when they include the construction of roads and branches”.
The document was filed on Tuesday (21) in the STF’s main process on parliamentary amendments, which has the minister as rapporteur.
The requests were based on publications in the series “”, started on the 11th by Sheet with support from the Rainforest Investigations Network (Tropical Forest Investigations Network, in Portuguese), from the Pulitzer Center.
It showed that since 2015, deputies and senators have allocated parliamentary amendments that took 1,648 heavy machines to the states of the Legal Amazon, with a total of resources at least three times greater than that of environmental protection actions in the Amazon forest region.
Inspection agents, authorities, environmentalists and indigenous leaders interviewed by the newspaper associate the abundant distribution of equipment with deforestation and the opening of illegal roads by city halls and other public bodies, combining developmental discourses with violations of the law.
Subsequently, the Sheet brought a specific case of a road between the municipalities of Porto Walter (AC) and Cruzeiro do Sul (AC) with an investigation into the environmental impacts behind the lack of planning and technical criteria in the use of amendments.
This report showed that federal deputy Zezinho Barbary (PP-AC) used his share of funds during the period when he himself was mayor of Porto Walter. The works led to the road passing through his family’s rural property and subsequently invading demarcated indigenous land.
Barbary said in an interview with Sheet who “would do it all over again” and described the requirements of environmental law as “bureaucracy”. He also stated that his conduct sought to respond to the outcry of the local population and bring the city out of isolation. He denies having performed any act for his own benefit.
According to the petition filed with the STF, this reported fact “clearly illustrates how resources arising from parliamentary amendments, distributed to projects and initiatives without any assessment of socio-environmental risks, end up enabling the practice of illicit conduct with serious impacts on the environment and indigenous peoples in the Amazon”.
The text of the document points out that “according to journalistic investigation, recent parliamentary amendments by federal deputy Zezinho Barbary are intended to attempt to regularize open roads in violation of environmental legislation and with signs of conflict of interest — as these roads directly benefit members of his family”.
It will now be up to Minister Flávio Dino, rapporteur of the case, to decide on the measures requested in the petition from anti-corruption entities.
