Brazil's Senate approves nomination of Augusto Aras as chief prosecutor
Brazil's Senate approved on Wednesday the nomination of Augusto Aras as the country's top public prosecutor. Sixty eight senators voted for his nomination and 10 against.
President Jair Bolsonaro previously said he picked Aras to be prosecutor general because he shares the view that environmental concerns should not get in the way of agricultural development.
Aras was not in the list of three people appointed by the Public Prosecutor's Office, breaking with an also 20 year old practice that aimed to keep their independence.
He has a PHD on constitutional law and speciality in economic and public law.
He says the Operation Car Wash was important and had many positive things, but that excesses were committed.
He has admitted to signing a letter in favour of "gay conversion" therapy, but says he doesn't believe it, and that marriage, gay or straight, is a contract rather than an institution and he doesn't want to say to anyone that they don't have a family.
He says abortion, same-sex marriage, criminalization of LGBT+phobia, and legalization of marijuana shouldn't be topics of "judicial activism", and instead addressed by the Congress.
"There is no alignment, in the sense of submission, to any of the Powers, but there is, of course, the respect that should govern the relations between the Powers and their institutions." [...] “In the sense that the sacred public interest prevails, that the purpose of the Republic, which is the common good, is always taken into account, independence [between legislative, judiciary, and executive] alone, excluding harmony, can create conflict, and a conflicting state doesn't add up, doesn't win."
"Impersonality must be shown more than ever in the Public Prosecutor's Office, because when we give a prior opinion, before the facts are clarified, we are committing, even for professional vanity, to a result that can be unfair."
“We will not have pretension of members of the Public Prosecutor's Office creating a private foundation to manage public resources. That would be unthinkable. It's a serious dysfunction in the system.”
He doesn't think the Jair Bolsonaro's nomination of his son as USA embassador configures nepotism.
He says sustainable development is a must. He says indigenous people should be able to farm or mine their land reserves.
"I want to be an attorney general with the Constitution in one hand and the Brazilian flag in the other. And if I had a third hand, I would put it on the Bible.”
Aras had had a dinner with leftist Workers' Party members in 2013, which made members of Bolsonaro's party oppose his nomination and the president hesitate. Aras said the dinner doesn't make him pro-Workers' Party. The president of an ally party to Bolsonaro contacted minister of Civil House Onyx Lorenzoni to defend Aras's nomination, saying Aras's wife and daughters were pro-Bolsonaro on their social media during 2018's elections. An ex-deputy who had recommended Aras called Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro asked him if he trusted Aras, and the ex-deputy reassured him he did.
