Ex-Minister Palocci Requests to Leave Workers' Party and Unleashes Attacks on Lula

09/27/2017 - 09h40

Former Minister, Antonio Palocci, sent a letter to the president of the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT), senator Gleisi Hoffmann (PR), on Tuesday (26), requesting to leave the party.

In the document, Palocci reaffirms his statements given to judge Sergio Moro, according to which former president Lula made a "blood pact" with the construction company Odebrecht.

"I witnessed, monitored or coordinated those events, usually jointly with or at the request of former president Lula. I am sure that, eventually, Lula will confirm everything"

The former minister says he was surprised to learn that PT started an internal procedure after the plea bargain statements, but did not do the same to investigate the reasons he was detained due to Car Wash operation.

"Now that I chose to change my line of defense and tell the truth, I find myself facing an inquisitorial court inside PT," he wrote.

Palocci states he wanted to help the party's and Lula's project, aware that it would be difficult not to make "any ethical slips".

"I realize the mistakes I've made and assume my responsibility. However, I cannot help but express the shock seeing Lula give in to the worst aspects of politics, at the peak of his administration," he said.

In the letter, Palocci also stated that, one day, former president Dilma Rousseff and the former president of Petrobras, Sergio Gabrielli, will admit "their perplexity after that fateful meeting at the Alvorada Palace, when Lula ordered drilling rigs and bribes, in the same tone of voice, without ceremony."

He describes the scene as the "most shocking" he has ever witnessed.

Translated by ANA BEATRIZ DEMARIA

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	Rodolfo Buhrer - 26.set.2016/Reuters
	Antonio Palocci, former finance minister and presidential chief of staff in recent PT governments, is escorted by federal police officers as he leaves the Institute of Forensic Science in Curitiba