The Greek myth tells that the master craftsman Daedalus built wings with bird feathers, blanket threads, leather straps from his own sandals and beeswax to escape through the air with his son, Icarus, from a labyrinth that he himself had created.
Daedalus, however, warned Icarus that he ran the risk of getting his bird feather wings wet and sinking if he flew too close to the sea, or of melting the beeswax if he flew too close to the Sun.
Icarus ignored his father’s warnings, flew too high, melted his wings, fell into the sea and drowned.
The son of Daedalus is today used metaphorically when someone, due to haughtiness, petulance, arrogance, ambition, vanity or all of them together, feels above good and evil. Usually, when you least expect it, you fall.
The Federal Supreme Court of Brazil (STF), the highest court in the country, is that person.
Given the political, moral, democratic and intellectual bankruptcy of the executive branch during Jair Bolsonaro’s government and the proverbial lack of shame of the legislative branch, which plays with the budget, as proven by that case in Pedreiras – a city of 39 thousand inhabitants in which 19 dental extractions were carried out per person in the year 2021 to justify the fraudulent acquisition of dental equipment – and shelters among them fugitives from justice, suspected of murder, hackers and spouse abusers, the judiciary assumed the role of oasis of the Republic.
Furthermore: as at the same time that, first, it made it ineligible, and then ordered the arrest of Bolsonaro and half a dozen other politicians and military coup plotters, the US Justice released Donald Trump and other instigators of the invasion of the Capitol, it gained international praise.
Most of the 11 STF judges, who were no longer known for their modesty, then thought they were heroes. Haughty, petulant, arrogant, ambitious, vain, they felt above good and evil and flew. They literally flew a lot.
According to data cross-referenced by the newspaper The State of S. Paulopassenger records from Brasília’s executive terminal and the take-off history of the companies Prime You and FSW PSE, both owned by banker Daniel Vorcaro, at least three STF judges traveled 11 times on behalf of the same citizen who corrupted half of Brasília in recent years and is detained in the same Federal Police superintendence cell that, until February, was occupied by Bolsonaro.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, whose wife was a lawyer for Vorcaro, from whom he received 129 million reais in three years, denies it. Judge Dias Toffoli, whose brothers were partners of Vorcaro’s brother-in-law and right-hand man in a resortdo not comment. Judge Kássio Nunes Marques confirmed.
The magistrates, like Icarus, flew too close to the Sun. They melted and fell in the people’s opinion.
And now they have left the STF, the highest court of the only power, the judiciary, which seemed to be unscathed by the general devastation, in the same situation as Daedalus: lost in a labyrinth created by themselves.
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