After Lava Jato, André Vargas does basic work at PT – 03/05/2024 – Panel

Almost ten years after being hit by Operation Lava Jato, former federal deputy and former vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies André Vargas produces dragon fruit on a farm in Ibiporã, in the north of Paraná, while carrying out basic work for the PT .

Vargas returned to the PT at the beginning of 2023. He had been forced to leave ten years ago, on the eve of the campaign for the re-election of Dilma Rousseff (PT). The pressure came after his relationship with money changer Alberto Youssef, the pivot of the operation, which in 2014 was taking its first steps, came to light.

“It was my only party and now I have helped the PT to organize itself in my region”, summarizes him, who in the past presided over the party in Paraná. Despite returning to the party, he says he has no electoral intentions for now: “I’m not running in 2024, I’m reorganizing my life, facing legal and personal issues.”

After disaffiliation, Vargas lost his mandate in the Chamber of Deputies and ended up in prison. He became the first politician convicted of Lava Jato, in a sentence signed by then judge Sergio Moro, now a senator from Paraná.

Vargas was in prison between 2015 and 2018 and was the target of two criminal complaints, but the sentences were later annulled by the STF (Supreme Federal Court), which declared the 13th Court of Curitiba incompetent to judge the cases. The cases were transferred to the Federal Court of the Federal District.

Vargas maintains his innocence. “I was a victim of political persecution perpetrated by bandits who used and abused their public functions for personal purposes,” he says. “Lava Jato subjected us to a torture process aimed at extracting lies about Lula and the PT”, says the former parliamentarian.

Vargas says that when he was released from prison, on parole, he asked to take care of his rural property, where he now produces 2,100 trees of dragon fruit, later sold to supermarkets in the region.

“I had never planted a chive plant. But, on parole, you have to get a formal job. I’ve been in politics since I was 20 years old. Where would I get a job? The farm was the only alternative I had left,” he says he.

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