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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SAO PAULO 000061 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, INR/IAA, INR/B 
STATE PASS USTR FOR KATE DUCKWORTH 
NSC FOR TOMASULO 
TREASURY FOR JHOEK 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
USAID FOR LAC/AA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR KDEM BR
SUBJECT: PARANA GOVERNOR REQUIAO TAKES ON THE FEDS 
 
REF: 07 SAO PAULO 879 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: A dispute between Parana State Governor Roberto 
Requiao and federal prosecutors and judges has attracted widespread 
media attention.  Prosecutors accused the Governor of using the 
state's public educational television channel as a vehicle to 
promote his own political agenda and to disparage his opponents. 
After a federal appeals judge ordered him to desist, Requiao 
responded by having technicians mute the sound whenever he spoke and 
flash CENSORED across his face in large red letters.  When the judge 
then fined him 50,000 Reals (about USD 28,500), Requiao declared 
himself a "gagged Governor" and accused the courts of violating his 
freedom of expression.  In the course of the controversy, the 
Governor temporarily pulled the offending program off the air and 
publicly upbraided the state's Prosecutor General so vociferously 
that she submitted her resignation.  This latest imbroglio is but 
one in a series of high-profile controversies involving the 
mercurial and unpredictable Requiao.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) Roberto Requiao of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party 
(PMDB) was elected Governor of Parana in 2002, a state of 10.3 
million immediately south of Sao Paulo.  He was re-elected in 2006 
by the razor-thin margin of two tenths of one percent, or about 
10,000 votes.  During his time in office, he has undertaken a series 
of populist measures - anti-globalization, anti-privatization, 
anti-GMO - that have earned him both plaudits and harsh criticism. 
 
¶3.  (U) The latest case revolves around a weekly program called 
"School of Government," which is carried by Educational Radio and 
Television of Parana (RTVE), the government-funded public 
broadcasting service.  The program is designed as a forum for state 
employees to share experiences and views on the challenges of public 
administration and issues facing the government.  Requiao has 
appeared on the show frequently since taking office.  Recently, 
however, he has come to dominate the agenda with his increasingly 
strident and personal tone.  Live and unscripted, he freely 
expresses his often unconstrained opinion of other politicians, the 
media, and various government entities, including the judiciary. 
 
¶4.  (U) Federal prosecutors charged Requiao in December 2007 with 
misuse of public resources for personal ends.  A district court 
found for the Governor, but Appeals Judge Edgar Lippmann of the 
Regional Federal Tribunal found merit in the complaint.  The judge 
declined to pull the program from the airwaves as prosecutors had 
requested, but he ordered Requiao to stop promoting his personal 
agenda on the public airwaves.  Never one to take criticism sitting 
down, the Governor appeared on the show the following week but had 
his voice muted and the word "CENSORED" flashed in large letters 
across the screen, together with the judge's name, whenever he 
spoke.  Judge Lippmann, not amused, fined the Governor 50,000 Reals, 
and on January 22, the Association of Federal Judges of Brazil 
(Ajufe) ordered RTVE to broadcast, every fifteen minutes over a 
24-hour period, its note of redress supporting the judge and 
criticizing the Governor for making a mockery of judicial orders. 
Requiao, outraged, ordered the station to close down rather than 
comply.  This was when he had his loud confrontation with state 
Prosecutor-General Jozelia Nogueira Broliani, who was seeking a 
compromise solution.  Shortly after the scene, Broliani submitted 
her resignation and gave press interviews explaining why. 
 
¶5.  (U) Requiao allowed the station back on the air the following 
day, broadcasting both Ajufe's note and his own response to it.  He 
has cast the controversy in freedom of speech terms.  Requiao claims 
the media dislike him because he cut the state's advertising budget, 
and that prosecutors and judges have it in for him because he has 
criticized their high salaries.  Some journalism associations have 
supported the Governor, arguing that the appeals judge and Ajufe 
went too far in trying to control the program's content.  Even the 
 
SAO PAULO 00000061  002 OF 003 
 
 
Parana chapter of the Bar Association, while deploring Requiao's 
treatment of the Prosecutor General, opined that Ajufe's insistence 
on the repeated broadcast of its note in support of the judge was 
disproportionate. 
 
¶6.  (U) Eduardo Guimaraes, a municipal official in the state 
capital, Curitiba, and a long-time Requiao watcher, told Poloff that 
everyone was in suspense to see what would happen on the next 
episode of "School of Government," scheduled for Tuesday, January 
¶29.  It proved to be an anti-climax.  Governor Requiao was on 
official travel - ironically, to Cuba - and Lieutenant Governor 
Orlando Pesutti took his place and delivered a non-controversial 
presentation on public works.  The Carnaval holiday offers the 
Governor some time to decide whether he wants to escalate the 
conflict or let it die. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Consul General (CG) called on Governor Requiao in Curitiba 
on January 14, in the midst of the controversy.  The mercurial 
Requiao, in good form, quipped that he might get even more political 
benefit from judicial "censorship" than he is accused of getting 
from misusing public television. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Governor Requiao is no stranger to controversy and indeed 
at times appears to welcome it.  In 2003, for example, he banned the 
cultivation and transportation of genetically modified organisms 
(GMOs) within Parana state borders, essentially diverting large 
quantities of soy and other agricultural products away from the Port 
of Paranagua.  (Note: The ban was a severe, if temporary, blow to 
port commercial activity.  The Governor's brother, Eduardo Requiao, 
is the Superintendent of the Administration of the Ports of 
Paranagua and Antonina.  End Note.)  The GMO ban was challenged in 
court and was eventually overturned by the Superior Federal Tribunal 
(STF).  However, the effort made Requico a hero to anti-GMO 
activists and garnered a great deal of attention, while earning him 
the enmity of state agricultural and business interests.  Per 
reftel, Requiao has expressed a desire to drive Switzerland-based 
GMO producer Syngenta Seeds out of the state, and recently blamed 
the company for a violent confrontation between Landless Movement 
(MST) militants and private security guards in the company's employ 
that left two people dead. 
 
¶9.  (U) In August 2006, ConGen Sao Paulo was briefly involved in a 
contretemps with Requiao when portions of then-CG's remarks at the 
signing of an agreement between U.S. Department of Commerce and 
Paranagua Port were incorporated out of context in the Governor's 
televised campaign advertisements.  Post was obliged to issue a 
clarification and insist that the Governor remove the remarks from 
the campaign ads. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) In anotehr episode, the Governor refused to allow 
concessionaires to raise the tolls on state highways, even though 
the increases were provided for under the companies' contracts with 
the state.  The previous administration had privatized a number of 
state roads, but Requiao, who opposes privatization on principle, 
said the tolls were too high.  Again, the concessionaires had to 
take the state government to court to ensure compliance with the 
terms of the contract.  Since that time, militants from the Landless 
Movement (MST), besides invading and occupying rural property, 
periodically attack toll booths, drive the collectors out, let 
traffic pass for free, and set up stands along the highway to sell 
their wares, while state police stand by and watch.  Many accuse 
Governor Requiao, an acknowledged MST supporter (reftel), of 
encouraging these attacks.  At the very least, his views encourage 
MST and anti-GMO activists to count on tepid state law enforcement 
action to protect property. 
 
¶11.  (U) In the aftermath of his confrontation with the federal 
judiciary, the Governor is facing renewed criticism - and another 
potential battle with prosecutors - over alleged nepotism.  In 
addition to his brother Eduardo as Ports Superintendent, another 
 
SAO PAULO 00000061  003 OF 003 
 
 
brother, Mauricio Requiao, serves as Secretary of Education.  Two of 
his nephews also serve in state government, and First Lady Maristela 
Quarenghi de Melo e Silva is president of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum 
in Curitiba, a state entity that also receives federal and private 
funds. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Comment: Requiao is a polarizing figure who has been 
characterized by one long-time political rival as a "PinoChavez," 
i.e., an authoritarian populist.  That said, he is not without his 
supporters.  He has established good relations with the Lula 
administration and is given credit for obtaining federal funding for 
the state.  Even many of his detractors admit that he works hard and 
has delivered good government to his state.  While some critics 
claim he is mentally deranged, there appears to be considerable 
political calculation in his theatrics; in this respect, he 
sometimes resembles Hugo Chavez, a friend and ally whom he hosted in 
Curitiba in April 2006.  Sao Paulo Federal Police Superintendent Dr. 
Jaber Makul Hanna Saad, who worked closely for many years with 
Governor Requiao in Curitiba, told CG in late January that Requiao 
is considerably better than his rhetoric, although he will "do what 
is needed" to advance his political fortunes.  Governor Requiao 
briefly sought his party's presidential nomination in 2006 and may 
be thinking of trying again in 2010. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Comment continued: In this particular instance, the real 
issue is Requiao's partisan use of what is intended as a neutral 
public service broadcasting vehicle.  Unfortunately, the line 
between providing information on government activities and purveying 
political propaganda is not always clear, especially to Brazilian 
politicians, and Requiao is uniquely susceptible to losing sight of 
acceptable boundaries.  End Comment. 
 
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