In an interview with Lusa news agency, the deputy, a member of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front in the lower Brazilian Chamber, considered the situation that the IURD is going through in Angola "very difficult" and said there was "prejudice" against the religious institution founded by Edir Macedo and warned the country for possible consequences.
"I would not like to say that it was necessary to disrupt relations between Brazil and Angola, but I would also like to say that our bench has a very large influence on industry, trade and technology in Brazil, and that many of these agreements, which even facilitate the Republic Angola, pass through our hands," warned Aroldo Martins, of the Republicans party.
Asked whether he supports possible retaliations by Brazil against Angola, the deputy said that he "would like that" there were no such measures, but that "it is difficult" that this does not happen, taking into account the Angolan response.
"How can anyone think that my heart joins my reasoning with the desire to encourage the help of the Republic of Angola, knowing that this type of thing is happening? I leave a little questioning," he told Lusa, in his office in the Chamber of Deputies, in Brasília.
At issue is an internal conflict in the IURD in Angola, which began in November 2019, when a group of Angolan dissidents decided to withdraw from the Brazilian leadership, with several accusations, including currency evasion, racism, mandatory practice of vasectomy, among others, all rejected by missionaries from the church created by Brazilian Edir Macedo, who also accuse Angolans of xenophobia and aggression.
In the Angolan courts, after the beginning of the differences between the parties, aggravated by the taking by force of temples throughout the country, there are several judicial processes related to IURD Angola.
The entire conflict led the Government to recently decree the deportation of Brazilian missionaries from the IURD.
Given the situation, Aroldo Martins, who was CEO of Record TV Internacional (Portugal), a group owned by Edir Macedo, hopes for "concrete actions" from the Brazilian government and that the Angolan executive "seek and use its ways and means to investigate " and achieve a "very clear definition of what the IURD is in the world and not this mistaken and prejudiced idea".
The deputy has no doubts in stating that the Angolan people are the ones who lose most from the conflict over the IURD and that the "money" that the Government can invest in a social nature "will not be able to cover" what the "religious organizations do in favor of of the nation".
"It is regrettable, because the Angolan people have to lose, because the work that the churches - not just the IURD - do with the population is something that all the money the Government can pay in social and psychological assistance, in counseling for if human beings rise, they cannot cover what, by vocation and calling, the religious organizations do for the nation. The population is the one who loses and that is sad," he maintained.
However, the deputy of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front assured that the treatment given by the Angolan Government to the IURD is not an exclusive and isolated situation, stressing that "all" foreigners go through this type of "difficulty".
"During what has happened lately, the relationship has worsened, I can say that in relation to the coexistence of what is 'foreign' in Angola. The authorities of the countries themselves... we all felt difficulties. Everyone. Portuguese businessmen suffered and suffer , foreign initiatives that invested in the country suffered," he said.
"I must say that everyone who knows the history of Angola since its independence after the Carnation Revolution in Portugal... the thing in Angola is still very recent and this relationship with the foreigner, this colonized relationship, is still very much in the skin , even more what happened in the Angolan civil war," added Martins.
In a message addressed to Angola, the deputy concluded his statements to Lusa with an appeal: We would like you to reflect, to seek information, that prejudices and prejudices were not established without transparent knowledge of the facts. So, for the sake of truth, we all win and the people of Angola do not lose."
