Investigated Content: publications accompanied by a video show an operation by the PF (Federal Police) in 2018. In the images, 2 men appear lying on the floor and a 3rd is sitting on a chair, with his hands behind his back, apparently handcuffed. The post accompanies a text that attributes the police action to the arrest of Bruno Maranhão.
Where it was published: Facebook and Twitter.
Completion of the Test: the content of posts according to which an ally of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), named Bruno Maranhão, was arrested on charges of drug trafficking is false. The video circulating on social media actually shows a Federal Police operation carried out in 2018 in Paraguaçu Paulista (SP), 4 years after the death of Maranhão.
In that PF action, agents seized 900 kilos of marijuana, an agricultural plane and another 400 kilos of the same drug hidden in the hangar. One reportage gives TV Record broadcast on the occasion shows, from 1 minute and 40 seconds, the name of those accused of involvement in the crime and there is no mention of Maranhão. The article features the same images shown in the verified video.
Bruno Maranhão could not have been named by the police in this case because he died in 2014. Another rumor in the post is his participation in the MST (Landless Rural Workers Movement). In fact, Maranhão was a leader in another group, the MLST (Movimento de Libertação dos Sem Terra).
For Comprova, false is content invented or edited to change its original meaning and deliberately released to spread a falsehood.
What the author of the publication says: Comprova tried to contact the 3 profiles where the video went viral. the 1st, Amapá report, is identified as a personal blog on Facebook and has over 51,000 followers. Contact was made via email and via the platform. In it, in exchange for a message, a cell phone was informed to contact the editor directly. Wanted by Comprova, the editor of Amapá report did not respond to questions and only said that “The matter is now closed.”
A Twitter user identified as Nalva shared the post on that social network. With more than 5.8oo followers, she declares herself a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and frequently publishes content in defense of the president. The author also did not respond to the message.
The 3rd profile that published the video on Twitter does not have a direct message channel and contact was not possible.
How we check: as it is a content that has already been investigated on other occasions, we started this investigation by resorting to materials published by agencies and checking sections on the same subject. We also looked for reports to explain who Bruno Maranhão was, his role in social movements and his death.
Comprova also looked for those responsible for the publications that, although already refuted a few times, went viral again on social networks.
Operation targeted drug trafficking
The seizure mentioned in the videos was in March 2018. According to the portal G1, the investigation investigated a case of drug trafficking in the interior of São Paulo. Federal police officers intercepted the plane loaded with marijuana and enlisted the help of the Military Police to make the arrests.
On the day of the operation, 3 people were arrested. The aircraft was at the aeroclub of Paraguaçu Paulista, a city 117 kilometers from São Paulo. According to the police, the criminals adapted the plane’s tank to transport the drug.
Twenty days after that seizure, the PF launched the operation “Blind Flight”, as a result of the investigations. On this occasion, 5 search and seizure warrants were carried out also in the city of Paraguaçu Paulista, in addition to the municipalities of Cornélio Procópio and Londrina – both in Paraná. In this action, a second aircraft was seized.
In none of the reports about the operation, the MST or Maranhão are mentioned.
Who is Bruno Maranhao?
The son of mill owners from Pernambuco, mechanical engineer Bruno Maranhão defended agrarian reform in the country. A report from Estadão about his death, which took place on January 25, 2014, highlights his last public action, 3 years earlier, in the 21st Century Agrarian Reform March, carried out by the MLST, a dissident of the MST.
Maranhão was a militant of the PCBR (Brazilian Revolutionary Communist Party) and, after returning from exile in France imposed by the military dictatorship, helped to found the PT. He died of multiple organ failure at age 74. On that occasion, the Lula Institute released a regret note, signed by the former president and former first lady Marisa Letícia. In the document, Maranhão was highlighted as a comrade in the struggle.
Relationship with Lula
Born in Pernambuco, like Lula, Maranhão and the former president became close in the process of founding the PT, a party from which the MLST leader was almost expelled after participating in an act in the National Congress that ended up in a riot, in June 2006. The episode came to be considered as a risk to the ex-president’s reelection campaign that year.
A member of the PT’s National Executive, Maranhão had the function of mobilizing social movements in support of Lula, according to a report by the Folha de S. Paulo in which he traced his profile. With Lula’s victory in the 2006 elections, in January 2007, Maranhão was one of the special guests, as a PT leader, to be part of the delegation in the inauguration of the former president.
Why we investigate: Comprova checks content on public policies, the pandemic and the 2022 presidential elections that go viral on the internet. Posts about Bruno Maranhão, falsely associated with drug trafficking and indicated as Lula’s right-hand man in the videos investigated here, can distort people’s perception of the former PT president who is, today, a pre-candidate for the Presidency of the Republic. The decision of the population at the time of voting must be based on facts, not hearsay. Lies weaken the electoral and democratic process.
Scope of publication: As of April 1st, the post had over 1,100 views on Facebook and over 580 views on a Twitter profile. After contacting Comprova, the post on Facebook was deleted.
Other checks on the topic: This is not the first time that Bruno Maranhão’s name has been wrongly associated with drug trafficking. The rumor had already circulated in 2019 and was checked by the G1, and in 2020 it was contested by the to the facts. THE Estadão Check also pointed out that if it was a rumor about the arrest for trafficking in Maranhão, who had already died at the time of the police operation. In another report, he pointed out thatDrugs and weapons were not taken in MST camp.
False and misleading content related to elections and candidates is frequently circulating on social media. Comprova has already shown that video is misleading by saying that election polls were forged in Bolsonaro’s election in 2018 and also that Iguaçu Park was not created by Lula.
WHAT IS COMPROVE?
THE Proof Project brings together journalists from 33 different Brazilian media outlets to discover and investigate misleading, invented and deliberately false information about public policies shared on social networks or through messaging apps. Comprova is a non-profit initiative.
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