Ultra-controversial minister of the Brazilian government, he had known he was in the hot seat for weeks. On Wednesday 19 May, in the morning, a series of searches was carried out by the federal police at the home and offices of the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, part of the political class now demanding the resignation.
The minister as well as officials of his administration are suspected of corruption and embezzlement for having favored a vast illegal network of trafficking in Amazonian timber intended for export. Sign of the importance of the suspected crimes: the operation, baptized Akuanduba (named after a deity of the Arara Indians), mobilized, Wednesday, some 160 police officers for 35 search warrants in Brasilia, Sao Paulo and in the ‘State of Para (Amazonia).
In the process, a judge of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Alexandre de Moraes, also authorized the lifting of banking secrecy on the accounts of Mr. Salles. Ten senior officials of the Ministry of the Environment were also suspended from their functions by the justice system, including Eduardo Bim, the president of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama).
The operation is of an unprecedented scale, never seen before for a minister of the environment, accused here of contributing himself to the destruction of nature. Ricardo Salles – who went to federal police headquarters in Brasilia on Wednesday to demand an explanation – denounced action “Exaggerated, superfluous”, assured act “In accordance with the laws” and manifested his “Surprise” given the scale of the searches.
Discreetly unravel the legislation
In fact, the police had been investigating possible wrongdoing committed by the minister and his team for months. In office since January 2019 and the accession to power of Jair Bolsonaro, Ricardo Salles, a 45-year-old lawyer with the air of an ideal son-in-law, is the bête noire of NGOs, accused of actively encouraging deforestation in the Amazon.
In addition to recent accusations of timber trafficking, the man has shown himself, for two years, by drastically cutting the budgets of nature protection agencies and thanking the main heads of these. He also greatly relaxed environmental standards and welcomed with open arms, in Brasilia, personalities convicted of illegal deforestation. In April 2020, during a ministerial meeting, when all the attention was focused on the Covid-19 pandemic, Ricardo Salles called to take advantage of the moment to “Passar a boiada” (“Making the herd of oxen”): in short, discreetly unraveling environmental legislation.
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