A Facebook post shares a screenshot where you can see a tweet announcing: “Marcola’s wife is nominated to assume the ministry of public security.” Marcola is the leader of one of the largest criminal groups in Brazil, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), which operates mainly in the Brazilian state of São Paulo and, according to the publication, Cynthia Herbas, wife of Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho (or Marcola ), was preparing to join the government of President-elect Lula da Silva. It’s false.
This week the final composition of the team chosen by the future Brazilian president, who takes office this Sunday, January 1, 2023, was known. Among the list of 37 ministers, there are party figures (26 ministers) and another 11 rulers without party affiliation. But none of the names chosen matches Cynthia Herbas.
By the way, regarding the portfolio that was assigned to him in the publication analyzed —that of “Public Security”, which will actually be called Justice and Public Security—, that responsibility was entrusted to Flávio Dino, until now governor of the state of Maranhão.
Even so, the idea that the wife of a known leader of a criminal group in Brazil began to spread before the final composition of the next Lula government was known. But where does this statement come from?
The origin is not in any news that has been transmitted by credible media. Strictly speaking, it is even a misrepresentation of an excerpt from the 4 by 4 program, promoted by journalist Luís Ernesto Lacombe, which spreads ideas such as that the Brazilian elections that led to Lula’s victory were the product of a “fraud.”
In the November 6 program (all the content can be seen on YouTube and broadcast on the Jovem Pan News subscription television channel, which is very close to Bolsonaro), Lacombe addresses a piece of news that reflects interest (or the “dream” , as Globo wrote in November) of the lawyer Alberto Zacharias Toron to assume the portfolio of Justice. It is from minute 1:18:30 that Lacombe refers to the Globo article, reading from his cell phone: “A lawyer who dreams of being Lula’s minister assumes the defense of Marcola’s wife, from the PCC.”
The relationship between the lawyer and Marcola’s wife stems precisely from the fact that Lacombe took charge of defending Herbas in court. But it is important to note that, as in the case of Cynthia Herbas, the name of Luís Ernesto Lacombe was never mentioned as a possible ministerial candidate for Lula da Silva.
The future President’s own advice addressed the matter in an article published in November, in which he responded to the alleged interest in incorporating Herbas into his executive. In that article, the team of the future Brazilian leader affirms that “trying to associate Lula with the PCC is a repetitive tactic of Bolsonarismo.” The article even points direct responsibilities to the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, for promoting false information when it says that, “during the campaign period, the defeated candidate repeatedly violated the electoral law by spreading ‘information known to be false’, that is , lies, on social networks. He and his children were convicted by the Superior Electoral Court for lying about the PCC and Lula ”.
Conclution
The claim that Cynthia Herbas, wife of one of Brazil’s most notorious criminals and leader of the Primeiro Comando Capital, would be part of the future government of Lula da Silva is false. This is a misrepresentation of an excerpt from the 4 by 4 program, broadcast by the Jovem Pan News channel, which addressed the interest of Herbas’s lawyer in being part of the team of the future president of Brazil.
Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:
WRONG
In the Facebook rating system this content is:
FALSE: Main content claims are factually inaccurate. This option generally corresponds to “fake” or “mostly false” ratings on fact-checking sites.
NOTE: This content was curated by The Observer as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.
Source: Observadora
