The protagonist on the Brazilian political scene in recent months, the minister STF (Federal Supreme Court) and President of the TSE (Supreme Electoral Court) Alexandre de Moraes became the number 1 target for the Bolsonaros. His work against digital militias and anti-democratic actions have led to attacks from the president’s supporters. Jair Bolsonaro (PL) who accuse him of patronizing Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (PT).
In his latest decisions, the Minister of the Supreme ordered the arrest of a Bolsonarist businessman who called in snipers and truck drivers. participate in anti-democratic actions in Brasilia and ordered the removal of the mayor of Tapura from office (MT), suspected of inciting merchants and agribusiness entrepreneurs to travel to Brasilia for a “last battle” against poll results.
However, Moraes’ trajectory has also been marked by criticism from social movements, the left, and the PT itself in the past.
Prior to joining the STF, Moraes was Minister of Justice and Citizenship in the government of Michel Temer, taking office shortly after removal of President Dilma Rousseffwho was impeached.
In 2017, Temer appointed Moraes as Minister of the Supreme Court.after the death of the minister Theory Zawaski in the Paraty Air Crash (SP).
At that time, the National Executive Committee of the PT, Lula’s party, opposed the nomination. According to a February 2017 memo, for the party, the appointment of Moraes to the STF was “a profound disregard for the country’s legal conscience.”
Opponents of Moraes’ nomination to the Supreme Court argued that he was appointed to prevent investigations against members of Temer’s government.
Law students at the University of São Paulo (USP), where he taught, also showed their opposition to Moraes’ appointment at the time, on the grounds that his position in the other positions he held was inconsistent with his court work.
A student petition organized at the time claimed that the São Paulo police used excessive violence during Moraes’ time as São Paulo’s Minister of Security and negligence regarding his role in the Ministry of Justice.
He had to overcome controversy around his name in order to take a post in the STF. During the Senate Sabbath for a vacancy, Moraes defended himself against criticism of his political connections, saying that he would act independently and that it was not possible to interpret the nomination as a “political service” to Temer.
“I will never act with the understanding that my appointment is due to gratitude or political favor. This I can guarantee, Your Excellencies. If approved, I will act absolutely independently and absolutely impartially,” Moraes said. Constitutional Commission at the time and judge of the Senate.
He also had to answer in the Senate to accusations that he allegedly defended the CCP (Capital First Command), São Paulo criminal group.
The law firm where Moraes worked in the past defended the transport cooperative Transcooper, suspected of links to the group.🇧🇷 In the Sao Paulo court, Moraes appeared in 2017 as Advocate for Transcooper in at least 123 civil lawsuits🇧🇷 Moraes claimed that Transcooper’s involvement with the PCC was never proven.
Political positions 4 more times
Before becoming Minister of Justice and Citizenship in Michel Temer’s government, Moraes had already held other political positions.
Between 2002 and 2005 he was Minister of Justice and Citizenship Protection in the State of São Paulo when he became President of the former Febem (Fundação do Bem-Estar do Menor) of São Paulo.
From 2015 to 2016, he was the head of the Public Security Secretariat of the State of São Paulo. In both cases, the governor at the time was Geraldo Alkmin (PSDB), who in the last elections he was elected to the post of Vice-President of the Republic on a list with Lula.
Moraes’ passage into Alcmina’s public security portfolio has been marked by controversy and the target of criticism from social movements. Police actions at the time against high school demonstrations and other protests in São Paulo were considered excessively violent.
Between 2007 and 2010, he was the municipal secretary of transport in São Paulo and simultaneously headed CET (Traffic Management Company) and SPTrans (São Paulo Transport Company – Metropolitan Transportation Company). From 2009 to 2010 he was the Municipal Secretary of Services of São Paulo. Gilberto Cassab (at that time in DEM) was the mayor.
Prior to taking these positions, Moraes worked as a public prosecutor in the São Paulo State Ministry from 1991 to 2002. Second Biography at STFhe won first place in the organ competition.
In 2010, he was a founding partner of the law firm that bears his name. He graduated in December 2014 after Alkmin invited him to head the Secretariat of Public Security of the State of São Paulo.
Moraes also defended former Chamber President Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ), a defendant in two Lava Jato lawsuits. In a trial unrelated to Lava Jato, Kunya was accused of using a false document. The criminal case was initiated in 2014 by the Supreme Court due to insufficient evidence.
Fake news target and nickname “dictator”
As minister of the STF and president of the TSE, Moraes is now under fire from Bolsonaro’s supporters and the president himself. In October, before the elections, Bolsonaro called him a “dictator”. Other terms such as “fraudster” and “molecules” were also used by the president to attack Moraes.
“I think the Supreme Court is judicially active, which is bad for Brazil as a whole. Alexandre de Moraes himself creates, ignores the public ministry, listens, investigates and condemns. Here we have a man in the Supreme Court who has all the symptoms of a dictator,” Bolsonaro told Veja magazine in October.
For Bolsonaro’s supporters, Moraes’ decisions involving fake news and militia digital investigations are “arbitrary”. There are also criticisms of his performance at TSE.
In one of the episodes during the elections, Moraes ordered the Bolsonaro coalition to provide evidence accusation that the inserts contained forgeries campaigns of former president Lula on radio stations.
After the election, Moraes maintained decisions to block the social media accounts of Bolsonaro supporters accused of spreading fake news and supporting anti-democratic activities.
Minister Alexandre de Moraes of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) ordered the Mayor of Tapura (MT) Carlos Alberto Capeletti (PSD) to leave office for 60 days. The decision was taken today in a process that concerns the roadblocks and actions in the barracks that have taken place in the country since the defeat of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the elections…. – Read more at https://noticias. uol.com .br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2022/12/07/moraes-afasta-prefeito-tapurah-mt.htm?cmpid=copiaecola
Accounts of propagandists of anti-democratic actions and distributors of fake news have been blocked by court order,… -todos-e-whom-controller-alexandre-de-moraes.htm?cmpid=copiaecola
He has also been the target of a series of fake news stories in recent months. The most recent was the false news that he bought eight properties at an average price of 4 million reais each, which would be inconsistent with his salary.🇧🇷 The post, however, confuses information published in 2017.
Another fake news was that Moraes was assigned to STF PT. — in fact, as explained above, the nomination came from Temer.
It also spread false information that determined the arrest of the ministerwhich sparked a celebration among protesters blocking roads after election result.
