From the Elephant in the Room to Breaking of Silences: Changes in the Visibility Dynamics of Operation Lava Jato

Abstract

Public relations is an activity that deals with two central dynamics: that of understanding the phenomena of public opinion from a reading of the publics that are formed due to controversial and relevant issues at the collective level, and that of managing the public visibility of organizations and of people. The configuration of a strategic communication goes through a process of tension and permanent dispute between institutions, organizations, public persons and publics for what appears or does not appear, for what is or is not visible and for what is or is not discussed, as well as for what is likely to appear, be seen and discussed. Our special interest lies in the vulnerabilities of publics to factors that silence them, but also it is important to connect this issue to deliberate silences, to processes of institutional concealment, that is, of what is withdrawn from the public's view or from the which impels them to ignore reality. This is a complex and nuanced process. One that calls our attention is described by Zerubavel (2006). When dealing with these dynamics, he focuses on a phenomenon metaphorically postulated as "the elephant in the room", to talk about something that, despite being in plain sight, is ignored and not discussed. It is a very complex phenomenon, which involves, on a collective level, what he calls "conspiracies of silence" and a discrepancy between what we experience in reality and what we end up publicly recognizing, that is, in the public's perception. Therefore, in this work we focus on two important aspects that are raised by the author: indisputability and the emergence of "silence breakers". To do so, we take Operation Lava Jato as an empirical case, especially the Curitiba nucleus. Launched in March 2014, with the aim of dismantling criminal organizations that operated in money laundering in several Brazilian states, the Operation consisted of a set of investigations and their consequent lawsuits, involving the Federal Police, the Federal Public Ministry and the Federal Justice in Curitiba, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília, in addition to superior courts and other control bodies. The most famous nucleus, however, is that of Curitiba, which brought together, from the beginning, the then Public Prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol and the then judge Sergio Moro. In 2023, the media and the political scene are moved by denunciations regarding Lava Jato maneuvers and abuses. Former deputy and Operation whistleblower, Tony Garcia, went to the media to reveal the coercion, extortion and persecution suffered during the years of Lava Jato. In this episode, we can more clearly identify what Zerubavel calls "breaking the conspiracy of silence", as it is the appearance of people in the role of breakers who will consistently offer testimonies and evidence and who will in fact point out, with the force of denunciation, the existence of the "elephant in the room" in a complete and irrefutable way. Thus, we will dwell here on analyzing the appearance, in the public scene, of Tony Garcia's media speeches.