By Indianara Goz
The government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has decided to keep secret for 100 years the list of people who visited banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, while he was held at the Federal Police (PF) headquarters in Brasília. The denial came on Friday (Nov. 6) from the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), the federal government's internal oversight and transparency agency, according to columnist Malu Gaspar of the newspaper O Globo.
The CGU called the appeal that sought access to the records "unreasonable." It was a short answer to a question many people in Brasília would like to see answered: who went in to talk to the banker?
Three closed doors in a row
The CGU's refusal did not come alone. The Federal Police had already denied access in June. In July, the Ministry of Justice did the same. The CGU simply closed the cycle.
Before deciding, the agency extended its review deadline twice, citing the complexity of the case. The delays pushed the answer to after the second round of Brazil's elections. The question remains: was the delay just bureaucracy?
The government's argument
According to the CGU, the detention was precautionary, visits depended on court authorization, and the case was under seal, even if only partially. That is the legal basis used to justify the century-long period, the same one that covers national security documents.
Brazil's Supreme Court went the other way
The contrast is clear. In September, Justice André Mendonça, the case's rapporteur at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's highest court, lifted secrecy from most of the case. The decision came after Vorcaro's ties to justices of the court itself, Alexandre de Moraes, Kassio Nunes Marques and Dias Toffoli, became public.
In other words, the Judiciary opened much of the case while the Executive kept the visitor list shut.
What comes next
An appeal is still possible to the Mixed Commission for the Reevaluation of Information, which can reconsider the decision. It is the last administrative chance to open the records. The source does not say whether a new appeal will be filed.
Why it matters
Banco Master and its owner are at the center of a case that now reaches names at the top of Brazil's judiciary. Lula, of the left-wing Workers' Party (PT), leads a government that promised transparency. The 100-year seal is the same period applied to national security documents, and here it covers the visitor log of a prisoner in state custody.
VDD Analysis
A government that promised transparency and answers with a century of secrecy a request about the routine of a prisoner in state custody feeds distrust, even if the legal basis it invokes is formally defensible. In a case that already involves names from the Supreme Court, the least taxpayers expect is clarity. Without it, the opposition and a free press have a duty to keep asking.
With information from Topic News.
