Under the preaching of political neutrality, the acts of the judge’s interim management in the Government of the are increasingly among the main groups competing for the Guanabara Palace this year.
The former mayor of Rio de Janeiro () has sought to capitalize on the exonerations and audits led by the interim governor’s team for his pre-campaign. The former governor (), an ally of the president of Alerj (of Rio de Janeiro), (PL), broke his silence and for the first time made direct criticisms of a judge’s decision.
Couto has promoted more than since taking over the Guanabara Palace, on March 24, after the . The interim management claimed to have identified possible ghost employees in the government.
The judge also ordered spending on all contracts above R$1 million, in addition to halting bids from different departments, including the Secretariat of Cities, commanded until March by Ruas, a pre-candidate for government.
The measures had been provoking PL members, but the reaction changed with Couto’s determination to remove coordination of the Present Security program from the Government Secretariat. The project installs community policing bases and until last year had almost 3,000 active and reserve military police officers, firefighters, civil and criminal police officers, as well as civilians leaving the Armed Forces.
When announcing the change in coordination for the Military Police, the Couto administration published a video on the government’s social networks with a speech by the Secretary of Public Security, Victor Santos, seen as critical of the old model.
“Securidade Presente is in the hands of who it should be: Public Security”, said the secretary, appointed by Castro, but maintained by Couto.
The interim government is also investigating possible irregularities in the actions of police officers in the program, such as work schedules and achievement of fraudulent targets.
Castro reacted by publishing a video criticizing the decision on Wednesday (6). He classified the claim that the program was used politically as a “fallacy”.
The former governor also said that the decision could be “the beginning of the end of Segurança Presente”. According to him, the project aimed to carry out proximity policing, different from the “day to day life of the battalions” of the PM. He stated that a pilot project was carried out at the corporation with a similar model that did not work.
“Changing the program that works best in Brazil, without listening to society, without listening to those who are part of the program, without listening to those who benefit from the program, is certainly a mistake,” said Castro, without mentioning Couto.
Paes, in turn, praised the interim governor’s decision. “The cleanup began to reach the most important area: public security. This absurd story of the program being in the hands of people outside of Rio ended, as former governor Cláudio Castro had done, transforming an important program as a bargaining chip.”
The public debate exposed the reading that allies of Castro and Ruas have been doing behind the scenes. They assess that Couto’s decisions have benefited Paes, who has publicly praised all the measures adopted by the judge.
Members of the PL point out, for example, the fact that the audit at Segurança Presente and a large part of the exonerations were the responsibility of delegate Roberto Leão. He had been occupying positions in Rio’s city hall since last year and was one of the first appointed by the judge, as Government Secretary and head of the GSI (Institutional Security Office).
Couto’s allies claim that the interim governor had a duty to make decisions from the moment irregularities were found. The magistrate has already discussed with the Attorney General of Justice, Antônio José Campos Moreira, “an institutional flow of forwarding possible irregularities identified by the state administration”, according to a note from the state Public Ministry.
People close to the judge also say it is natural that audits unintentionally benefit the opposition. However, they deny an agenda direction with Paes. One of them pointed out as evidence of non-alignment the fact that the measures are also receiving the support of former governors (Republicans) and (PMB), who, like the former mayor, place themselves as pre-candidates for the Guanabara Palace.
The involvement of the interim management in the political dispute has been generating concern within the Guanabara Palace. On Tuesday (5), more than a month after starting the change of secretaries, the government issued a note stating that the changes were “focused on political neutrality and the valorization of public service”.
“The acting governor, judge Ricardo Couto, appointed career civil servants to command strategic areas of the State. With decades of experience, the new secretaries and directors were chosen based on technical management and professional trajectory”, states the note.
The judge has already changed 10 of the 32 secretaries, in addition to changing the leadership of bodies such as the CGE (State Comptroller General), PGE (State Attorney General) and GSI.
Couto remains in office by decision of the (Federal Supreme Court), which has not yet decided how the new buffer governor will be chosen, to complete his term of office by the end of this year. The determination changed the provisions of the state Constitution, since on April 14 Alerj elected Douglas Ruas as president of the Legislature, a position that is ahead of the president of the Court of Justice in the line of succession.
