Weakening constitutional rules through anti-corruption and impunity discourses: Analyzing the impact of the “Operação Lava-jato” (Car Wash Operation) on the presumption of innocence in Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl.1675Keywords:
Strategic communication, judicial influence, Car Wash OperationAbstract
We use a sociolegal perspective to critically analyze how narratives supporting the need to reduce and punish corruption in Brazil, particularly the ones deployed in the course of the Car Wash Operation (CWO), influenced the weakening of the presumption of innocence rule. Originally deployed to investigate a criminal organization using a network of gas stations and car wash companies to “clean” illicit resources, the CWO was rapidly transformed in a major law enforcement operation, and it was used to unravel endemic corruption found in private and state-owned companies. Using a variety of communication resources, the Prosecutor office in charge of the operation developed a set of strategic tactics to promote the discourse that the rule of presumption of innocence was one of the main motives behind the high levels of corruption and impunity in Brazil. This narrative influenced the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court during the judgment of the case involving Brazilian former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The social pressure caused by the use of strategic communication tools were crucial to lead the court to overrule the meaning of presumption of innocence. The paper examines how these tools were able to promote social traction and how they can be used to influence and shape the meaning and effectiveness of legal rules.
Downloads
Metrics
Downloads:
14(1)_Neto_Santiago_OSLS 374
XML_14(1)_Neto_Santiago_OSLS 14
References
AE, 2019. “Nenhum princípio da Constituição é absoluto”, diz Dallagnol sobre segunda instância. Correio do Povo [online], 25 October. Available at: https://www.correiodopovo.com.br/not%C3%ADcias/pol%C3%ADtica/nenhum-princ%C3%ADpio-da-constitui%C3%A7%C3%A3o-%C3%A9-absoluto-diz-dallagnol-sobre-segunda-inst%C3%A2ncia-1.375378
Almeira, A.L.C., Barreto, R.O., and Cunha, C.D., 2017. As “Jornadas de Junho” e a ressignificção da campanha “Vem pra Rua”. Extraprensa [online], 11(1), 203–221. Available at: https://doi.org/10.11606/extraprensa2017.137992 DOI: https://doi.org/10.11606/extraprensa2017.137992
American Convention on Human Rights, Pact of San José of Costa Rica. Organization of American States (OAS), 1969 [online]. Available at: https://www.oas.org/dil/access_to_information_American_Convention_on_Human_Rights.pdf
Ávila, G.N., and Roque, G.A., 2019. Operação “Lava Jato” e garantias processuais penais: percepções de acadêmicos de uma IES do Norte do Paraná. Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito da UFBA, 29(1), 50–75.
Bello, E., Capella, G., and Keller, R.J., 2021 Operação Lava Jato: ideologia, narrative e (re)articulação da hegemonia. Direito e Práxis [online], 12(03). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2020/53884 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2020/53884
Bueno, E., 2019. Náufragos, traficantes e degredados (Coleção Brasilis - Livro 2). Rio de Janeiro: Estação Brasil.
Cioccari, D., 2015. Operação Lava Jato: escândalo, agendamento e enquadramento. Alterjor [online], 6(2). Available at: https://www.revistas.usp.br/alterjor/article/view/aj12-a04/104083
Cioccari, D., 2018. Operação Lava Jato: escândalo, agendamento e enquadramento. Alterjor, 12(2), 58–78.
Cutlip, S.M., Center, A.H., and Broom, G.H., 1995. Effective Public Relations. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Empoli, G.., 2020. Os engenheiros do caos. São Paulo: Vestígio.
Federal Constitution of Brazil. 5 October 1988 [online]. Available at: https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/constituicao.htm
Federal Decree-Law 4657 [online]. Available at: https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/decreto-lei/Del4657compilado.htm
Federal Law 12376 (LINDB) [online]. Available at: https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2007-2010/2010/Lei/L12376.htm#art2
Federal Prosecution Office (MPF), no date. Operação Lava Jato [online]. Brasília/DF: Procuradoria-Geral da República. Available at: https://www.mpf.mp.br/grandes-casos/lava-jato
Hallahan, K., et al., 2007. Defining Strategic Communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication [online], 1(1), 3–35. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/15531180701285244 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15531180701285244
Heide, M., et al., 2018. Expanding the Scope of Strategic Communication: Towards a Holistic Understanding of Organizational Complexity. International Journal of Strategic Communication [online], 12(4), 452–468. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2018.1456434 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2018.1456434
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. United Nations General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI). 16 December 1966.
Kerche, F., 2018. Ministério Público, Lava Jato e Mãos Limpas: uma abordagem institucional. Lua Nova [online], 105, 255–286. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-255286/105 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-255286/105
Lagunes, P., et al., 2021. President Bolsonaro’s Promises and Actions on Corruption Controls. Direito FGV [online], 17(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-6172202121 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-6172202121
Lopes, M.S., Albuquerque, G., and Bezerra, G.M.L., 2020. 2018, a batalha final: Lava Jato e Bolsonaro em uma campanha anticorrupção e antissistema. Civitas, Revista de Ciências Sociais [online], 20(3). Available at: https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7289.2020.3.37248 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7289.2020.3.37248
López, I.H., 2015. Dog whistle politics: how coded racial appeals have reinvented racism and wrecked the middle class. Oxford University Press.
Machado, L., 2018. Em decisão ‘pessoal’, Joaquim Barbosa desiste da disputa presidencial. BBC Brasil [online], 7 April. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-43650210
Marques, A. G., 2016. Direitos fundamentais e crise: violência, impunidade, corrupção institucionalizada e o princípio da não culpabilidade no HC 126.292/SP do STF. Revista de Direito Brasileira, 16 (7), 21–42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5585/rdb.v16i7.386
Mesquita, F.L., 2019. Quem deve acionar a lei? Veja [online], 2 April. Available at: https://veja.abril.com.br/coluna/augusto-nunes/quem-deve-acionar-a-lei
Price, M.E., 2002. Media and Sovereignty: The Global Information Revolution and its Challenge to State Power. Contemporary Sociology [online], 32(6). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1556680 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1556680
Moro, S., 2004. Considerações sobre a Operação Mani Pulite. Revista CEJ, 26, 56–62.
Oliveira, D.B.R., and Machado, E.,2019. Vem pra Rua e MBL no contexto do golpe parlamentar no Brasil. Lutas Sociais [online], 23(42), 98–108. Available at: https://doi.org/10.23925/ls.v23i42.47436 DOI: https://doi.org/10.23925/ls.v23i42.47436
Price, M.E., 2015. Free Expression, Globalism, and the New Strategic Communication [online]. Cambridge University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680486 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680486
Rodrigues, A., Gandra, A., and Boehm, C., 2019. Agência Brasil [online], 30 June. Available at: https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/noticia/2019-06/movimentos-promovem-atos-apoio-moro-e-lava-jato
Rodrigues, F.A., 2020. Lava jato: aprendizado institucional e ação estratégica na justiça. São Paulo: WMF Martins Fontes.
Sá e Silva, F., 2022. Relational legal consciousness and anticorruption: Lava Jato, social media interactions, and the co-production of law detraction in Brazil (2017-2019). Law and Society Review [online], 56(3), 344–368. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12620 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12620
STF, 2023. STF condena ex-Senador Fernando Collor por esquema de corrupção na BR distribuidora [online]. 25 May. Available at: https://portal.stf.jus.br/noticias/verNoticiaDetalhe.asp?idConteudo=507891&ori=1#:~:text=O%20Plen%C3%A1rio%20do%20Supremo%20Tribunal,crimes%20relacionados%20%C3%A0%20BR%20Distribuidora
Stochero, T., 2019. Fim da prisão em segunda instância significa ‘impunidade do colarinho branco e de corruptos poderosos’, diz Dallagnol. Globo [online], 25 October. Available at: https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2019/10/25/fim-da-prisao-em-segunda-instancia-significa-impunidade-do-colarinho-branco-e-de-corruptos-poderosos-diz-dallagnol.ghtml
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 João Araújo Monteiro Neto, Nestor Eduardo Araruna Santiago
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
OSLS strictly respects intellectual property rights and it is our policy that the author retains copyright, and articles are made available under a Creative Commons licence. The Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution No-Derivatives licence is our default licence, further details available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 If this is not acceptable to you, please contact us.
The non-exclusive permission you grant to us includes the rights to disseminate the bibliographic details of the article, including the abstract supplied by you, and to authorise others, including bibliographic databases, indexing and contents alerting services, to copy and communicate these details.
For information on how to share and store your own article at each stage of production from submission to final publication, please read our Self-Archiving and Sharing policy.
The Copyright Notice showing the author and co-authors, and the Creative Commons license will be displayed on the article, and you must agree to this as part of the submission process. Please ensure that all co-authors are properly attributed and that they understand and accept these terms.
