Judge Paulo Barreto has been appointed as the new Representative of the Republic in Madeira. The decision was made by the President of the Republic and has already been published on the Presidency’s website.
Paulo Duarte Barreto Ferreira was born in 1962 in Funchal. He joined the Centre for Judicial Studies in 1987. He made a career in the first instance in the Judicial Districts of Graciosa, Coruche, Seixal, Albergaria-a-Velha, Funchal, and Lisbon. From 2014 to 2020, he was Presiding Judge of the Judicial Court of the District of Madeira. He has been a judge at the Lisbon Court of Appeal since 2010.
The Portuguese Labour Party (PTP), through José Manuel Coelho, expressed its deep astonishment and total disagreement with the appointment of Paulo Barreto to the position of Representative of the Republic for the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
“For the PTP, this choice is an alarming sign for the democratic institutions of the Region. If Paulo Barreto is a representative of the Republic as ‘good’ as he was as President of the District of Madeira or as a delegate of the National Elections Commission (CNE), the Madeirans and Porto Santo are, in the party’s opinion, ‘well arranged.’
José Manuel Coelho says he makes “a point of reviving the collective memory,” recalling that it was during Paulo Barreto’s mandate that there were “dark episodes in justice and freedom of expression in Madeira.” The party gives as an example “the siege against the newspaper Garajau and against several democrats who dared to challenge the Jardinista regime.”
“During his time in the District of Madeira, great political corruption flourished without the justice system doing its due work of inspection and punishment, allowing cronyism schemes to take root in the Region. Having given as an example, the case of Madeira’s hidden debt (‘Cuba Livre’ process) and the enforcement agent Maria João Marques, who defrauded many Madeirans,” accuses PTP
Coelho points out “that it was not by chance that operation ‘Zarco’ and operation ‘Ab Initio’ had to come from outside the Region with the DCIAP, laying bare the ineffectiveness of years and years of justice in Madeira, which was under the leadership and supervision of Paulo Barreto.”
The PTP adds that “Paulo Barreto was more concerned with issues of his class and corporatists than with the interest of the Madeirans and Porto Santons, who deserved decent justice.”
“It is no wonder that Miguel Albuquerque and Paulo Cafofo are satisfied with their appointment, because this appointment will once again serve as an instrument of protection for the elites that have dominated the archipelago for decades,” the party argues.
Coelho concludes by classifying this appointment of Paulo Barreto as Representative of the Republic as “the first shot in the foot” of António José Seguro (President of Portugal).
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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