Representative Beto Preto has until Monday (17th) to reach a settlement in impropriety case
Former Paraná Health Secretary negotiates with prosecutors, potentially avoiding conviction impacting political rights.
Tempo previsto
16/4/2025
Aroldo Murá, Paraná journalism icon, leaves a legacy of intellect, generosity, and ethical dedication.
Aroldo Murá, a true-blooded journalist, was sharp when it came to matters of intellect, with no patience for errors in logic or Portuguese grammar. He was implacable on these points, right up until the very end. During his time at the newspaper Indústria & Comércio (Industry & Commerce), he would deliberately dismiss the journalistic skills of newcomers, pushing them to craft compelling stories. A high point of this strategy was his immediate hiring of an intern who wrote a good note. The intern was Gladimir Nascimento.
It became customary to call the journalist Professor Aroldo Murá. He himself, not infrequently, referred to himself as "Professor". "Don't let the Professor down", he would say when commissioning a piece for his blog. In more than 60 years of news practice, alongside his gift of self, he was admired by students and colleagues, and reserved space in his editorials for classic and comical antagonists. The man knew how to provoke, often, and many other times he corrected himself publicly.
For contributors to his own blog, among whom journalist André Nunes, a loyal and ever-present friend, stands out, he habitually complained about absolutely every text that contained explicit or subtle criticism of any public figure. And he posted the texts anyway, without a single modification, even while exclaiming, "You're going to make me lose all my advertisers!"
In the late 2010s, he joined forces with the administrator and former State Planning Secretary Dr. Belmiro Valverde, architect Manoel Coelho, journalist Michelle Thomé, photographer Felipe Pinheiro, and others, and helped to establish the João Paulo II Education Center in a vulnerable area of Araucária, in the Curitiba Metropolitan Area. The school, at the time, was an institutional provocation taken to its ultimate consequences, providing a very high level of education, full-time. The cost per student was the same as in the public school system, but with funding from US philanthropy.
A few years ago, he called a long list of journalists and invited them: "Let's interview Luiz Geraldo Mazza". He received everyone with a lavish spread, and that afternoon the inner workings of Curitiba and Paraná were laid bare. It's all recorded on video. It was confirmed that the capital truly is a small city, with experiences both noble and infamous, as befits any inhabited city.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, through the Instituto Ciência e Fé (Science and Faith Institute), he promoted a series of online lectures with representatives of various religious beliefs. There was everything from the least known or popular to the Blessed Sacrament. The respect with which the Professor treated each guest and each question is a lesson in professional ethics and human sensitivity.
Journalism in Paraná loses a sage who was also generous. A father to countless "children", he always bid them farewell with a blessing in the form of a cross. Now, it is hoped that, given the advantages of proximity, he will ask God's help for Paraná and Brazil. And that he will intercede with the Creator for the life of journalism.
Leia insights sobre a interação de humanos com modelos de linguagem de IA, e sobre os ODS no Brasil. Lab Educação 2050 Ltda, que mantém este site, é signatária do Pacto Global das Nações Unidas.
Keen, generous journalism spurs thought and bolsters ties.
Murá's insight fosters free debate, expanding justice and accord.
Former Paraná Health Secretary negotiates with prosecutors, potentially avoiding conviction impacting political rights.
Federal Congressman for Paraná, Beto Preto (PSD), has until Monday (17th) to accept or reject a deal with the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP). The summons was ordered by the 1st Court of Public Finance of Apucarana (PR), relating to a case of administrative impropriety.
As a condition for closing the case, the MP proposes that Preto compensate for damages and pay a fine of R$ 25,000. In the lawsuit, the prosecution points to losses to public funds caused by a fraudulent bidding process in 2013, amounting to R$ 127,194.43.
Beto Preto headed the Health Department in Paraná during the pandemic. It was then that he made a name for himself in the election that took him to Brasília. He is currently on Governor Ratinho Júnior's shortlist for succession to the Iguaçu Palace. If convicted of an act of impropriety, he could have his political rights suspended.
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, Beto Preto, then president of the Intermunicipal Consortium of the Ivaí Valley (Cisvir), contributed to a bid-rigging scheme by assisting a criminal organization led by the deceased businessman Marcelo Cernescu.
The then-president approved a bidding procedure without considering several irregularities. The scheme involved, according to the MP, shell companies and the contracting of services considered unnecessary because they should have been provided directly by the public administration.
In the initial petition, the prosecution describes illegalities in the bidding process for the contracting of an object described as "unnecessary, costly, and flagrantly illegal".
Furthermore, the elements gathered in the investigation indicate that, to achieve the illicit objectives, regardless of the contracting municipality, a similar modus operandi was employed, consisting of a joint effort between public officials and businessmen of the group to "assemble" bidding processes for the contracting of an unnecessary, costly, and flagrantly illegal object, whose acts bear clear indications of concealment.
—Initial petition of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
For the MP, the items in the bidding process do not justify hiring a private company, and it is a mere artifice "unequivocally created for the diversion of money from public coffers".
Congressman Beto Preto even had his assets frozen, along with the other defendants. Due to a change in the Administrative Improbity Law approved in 2021, the judge in the case ordered the unfreezing of the assets.
Micro-doc reveals Jenin camp reality, a symbol of Palestinian resistance in the West Bank.
Ten Palestinians were killed and one hundred injured by Israeli military forces in one of the largest operations against Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp in years.
Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank, where Jenin is located, since 1967. This represents 56 years of illegal occupation, violating international law.
Palestinians are the largest refugee group in the world. They have lived in refugee status for 75 years, both abroad and within Palestine itself, without the right to return to their regions of origin or even to move freely within their own country.
Palestinians have the right to resist the illegal occupation, the expulsion from their homes, and the chronic violence to which they are subjected.
We, writer and journalist Cassiana Pizaia, and analyst and journalist Vinícius Sgarbe, produced a micro-documentary about Jenin over a year ago, following two trips to the Middle East.
