Brazil's Federal Police chief Andrei Rodrigues is facing an internal crisis after a restructuring removed two senior investigators leading the Banco Master inquiry.
The shakeup overhauled the Federal Police department responsible for inquiries proceeding before Brazil's superior courts, resulting in the departure of the two police chiefs heading the case, according to CNN political analyst Matheus Teixeira on Live CNN.
In its official justification, the Federal Police said the changes were administrative in nature. According to that account, the removed officers were not directly involved in core operational work.
However, a faction within the Federal Police interprets the situation differently and sees interference by Rodrigues. For that group, the administrative change was not aimed at improving internal police work, but at removing the two chiefs who had coordinated the case from the start.
Dispute over administrative changes
The two removed officers were responsible for the coordination units handling the Banco Master case from the beginning of the investigations and therefore held deep knowledge of the inquiry. Teixeira said that for the critical wing of the force, removing them now harms rather than helps all the investigations.
Teixeira said Rodrigues already faced opposition from part of the force, and that the week's events only increased that pushback. Although the director-general has the authority and competence to implement administrative changes, such as creating new coordination units or merging internal divisions, part of the force believes the measure goes beyond a simple reorganisation.
The Federal Police, or Polícia Federal, is Brazil's national law enforcement agency, tasked with investigating federal crimes, financial offences and cases before the country's higher courts. Its inquiries are directed by senior law enforcement officers known as delegados. Rodrigues is a career officer who was appointed director-general of the agency by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Comparison with the INSS investigation
Teixeira noted that the current situation is being compared to a previous episode, when changes in another Federal Police coordination unit led to the departure of a police chief from an investigation involving the National Institute of Social Security, Brazil's federal pension agency, known as the INSS.
The INSS inquiry reached President Lula's son, Fábio Luis Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, as well as members of the Workers' Party leader's federal government, such as former chief of staff Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, known as Marcola. Teixeira explained that formal changes to Federal Police structures in the middle of that crisis likewise led to the removal of a chief from the case.
