Candidates elected on October 2 total BRL 23.8 million in environmental fines, shows a survey of the Sheet based on data from IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources).
The PL, the acronym by which President Jair Bolsonaro runs for reelection, the PSD and União Brasil lead in the number of winners of the electoral race who have been fined in recent years. The three parties each elected five candidates. with environmental infractions.
In all, 34 people were elected. who received 75 fines of IBAMA in the last 20 years. The number can still increase, considering the dispute of the second round.
The largest shares of these fines are among state (21) and federal (10) deputies, which are, at the same time, the positions with the highest number of candidacies.
The report cross-referenced data from environmental assessments since 2003 (updated in the IBAMA database until August) with those of candidates who competed for deputy (state, district and federal), senator, governor, vice-governor, president and vice-president at current election. The amounts of fines applied were adjusted for inflation.
To avoid counting errors, multiple fines recorded at exactly the same time were discarded. In these cases, only one of them was counted.
163 candidates competed for elective positions, accumulating 277 notices – a sum of R$ 81.6 million. The PL led in the number of candidacies with fines, with 18 names. Next in the ranking are União Brasil (15), PSD (14), MDB (13) and PP (13).
The parties were sought out by the Sheet. Only PSD and MDB manifested.
The PSD said in a statement that “all candidacies are responsible for submitting the information required to comply with current electoral legislation.” Environmental fines do not preclude the application.
The MDB, also in a note, mentioned the creation of the Ministry of the Environment, structured with the name of Ministry of Urban Development and Environment, during the government of José Sarney, who belonged to the PMDB.
“This historic stance explains why only 0.9% of current candidates [do partido] have precedents in this regard over a period of almost two decades. Still, everyone needs to be held individually accountable within the law.”
Illegalities in the Legal Amazon dominate the list of assessments, both among elected officials and among all fined candidates who contested the election. The highest values of infractions found by the Sheet are from cases that occurred in Pará, Mato Grosso and Amazonas.
Among those elected fined, there is a senator and two governors. Still in dispute in the second round, there is also a candidate for the state government and President Bolsonaro himself, who was fined around R$18,000 for illegal fishing in 2012.
Bolsonaro’s fine expired in 2018, “due to the superficiality of the description of the facts that occurred”, according to a technical statement from Ibama.
The fined senator elected is Jaime Bagattoli (PL-RO), charged in 2003 and 2004 for deforestation and transporting wood without the necessary documentation. He did not return the report’s attempts to contact him until publication.
The two governors in question are Helder Barbalho (MDB-PA) and Antonio Denarium (PP-RR), re-elected in their states.
Barbalho was fined by Ibama in 2012, when he was mayor of Ananindeua (PA), for improper disposal of urban waste. It was a case associated with the Aurá dump, in which the mayor of Belém at the time was also fined.
Sought, Barbalho’s advice stated that the assessment was wrong and that Ibama would have determined the removal of the name of the fine and recognized the statute of limitations.
“The infraction notice was filed without observing the necessary formalities, as it was drawn up in the name and CPF of Helder Barbalho, when in fact it would be the responsibility of the body, that is, the City Hall of Ananindeua”, says the note.
Denarium, in turn, was fined in 2018 for deforestation. He did not return the report’s contacts.
In the second round for the government of Alagoas, Paulo Dantas (MDB) is fined, in 2019, for deforestation of caatinga without authorization and, in 2020, for the lack of environmental information on a farm.
Dantas was recently removed from the governorship because of Operation Edema. Investigators say the governor made use of phantom employees in his office.
wanted by SheetDantas’ advisory stated that “the aforementioned environmental fines have nullities, inconsistencies and, even, discussion of my illegitimacy [de Dantas]all of which have already been demonstrated in the respective defenses presented to the environmental agency, and are, on this date, pending judgment”.
Among those elected, the highest amount in fines belongs to Affonso Cândido (PL-RO), who was elected state deputy and is the former mayor of Ji-Paraná (RO). He has four notices, from 2016 and 2019, for deforestation and for disrespecting an area embargoed by Ibama. They add up to just over R$9.1 million.
A lawsuit that is running in the Federal Court of Amazonas contains a document that shows the sale of the area involved in the deforestation assessments, dated November 2015 — therefore, prior to the fines. THE Sheet the lawyer for the new owner of the property confirmed the sale. Also sought after, Cândido did not respond.
In the process, the new owner, under interrogation, claims that he leased the land to raise cattle from other people.
The second place in the ranking goes to Ondair Bortolini, the Nininho (PSD-MT), who sums up R$ 3.1 million in fines. He was re-elected state deputy for Mato Grosso.
In 2007, Nininho received fines for deforestation of more than 400 hectares of the Amazon on a farm in Novo Progresso (PA), and burning, in addition to the destruction of APPs (area of permanent preservation), on the banks of a river. He was also fined for building a dam without authorization.
THE Sheet looked for the candidate by phones associated with his campaign and by social network, but there was a return.
In third place is Thiago Araújo (Citizenship-PA), elected state deputy, with R$ 2.4 million in fines. He received fines in 2021 and 2022 for damaging APP and destroying vegetation in the Cuinarana Marine Extractive Reserve (PA).
Wanted, Araújo responded through lawyers. “At no time do I recognize the existence of any damage,” he says in a statement.
The representatives also state that there is a “technical discussion on georeferencing, delimitation of the APP and the procedure involving ICMBio and the MPF”. They understand that the area is outside the APP.
Suely Araújo, a senior specialist in public policies at the Observatório do Clima, a network of organizations that deal with climate issues, points out that Congress has made attempts to relax the rules for protecting the environment and socio-environmental rights.
“The general narrative in Congress is one of flexibility and support for legislative proposals that deconstruct all that we have in terms of protective norms. environmental licensing that implodes current legislation, the proposal for a pesticide law”, he exemplifies.
The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.
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