Cláudio Castro (PL), the former governor of Rio de Janeiro informed that he will not testify to the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on Organized Crime, in the Federal Senate. He was supposed to attend the session this Tuesday, 14th, in Brasília, but he will miss it due to “intense pain in the lower back”.
“Former governor Cláudio Castro was diagnosed, on Monday morning, with acute low back pain, presenting intense pain in the lumbar region, which led to express medical advice to suspend travel and face-to-face activities at this time. For this reason, he will not be able to attend the hearing of the Organized Crime CPI, scheduled for Tuesday, in Brasília”, says the former governor’s note published by G1.
Castro’s summons was approved by the CPI on May 31st. There is an understanding formed in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) that governors cannot be summoned. With Castro’s resignation from office on March 23, the scenario changed and parliamentarians approved his hearing and that of the former governor of the Federal District Ibaneis Rocha (MDB).
Castro resigned one day before the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) judgment that condemned him and made him ineligible until 2030. According to the accusation, state bodies, such as Ceperj and Uerj, would have been used to create more than 27 thousand irregular commissioned positions, intended to benefit political allies and boost the former governor’s re-election in 2022.
For the CPI rapporteur and author of the request, senator Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE), Castro’s testimony would provide “an invaluable macro strategic overview, allowing us to investigate the failures and institutional bottlenecks that make it difficult to combat money laundering and the financial suffocation of organized crime”.
“Historically, Rio de Janeiro has been the laboratory for the most sophisticated dynamics of organized crime in the country,” says Vieira in the application. “Given the magnitude and sophistication of these structures, combating organized crime transcends mere repressive action on the streets, requiring a systemic understanding of how these mafias launder their illicit assets and how they manage to infiltrate the Constituted Powers”, he adds.
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This is not the first time that Castro has not attended Commission meetings. The CPI even scheduled three hearings with the former governor of Rio between February and March. He missed all three attempts citing a scheduling incompatibility. Estadão tries to contact the former governor.
This is the last week of operation of the CPI, installed in November last year. The president of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre, decided not to extend the commission’s deadline.
