According to Maurício Lopes Lima, a former member of (OBAN) – a para-legal structure which included the intelligence and torture services of the Armed Forces—Rousseff was the primary leader of VAR Palmares, and he received reports calling her "one of the brains" of the revolution. Police commissioner Newton Fernandes, who investigated the clandestine organization in São Paulo and profiled dozens of their members, said that Rousseff was one of the principal masterminds. The attorney who prosecuted the organization called her "Joan of Arc of subversion", saying that she led strikes and advised bank robberies. She was also dubbed "the she-pope of subversion", a "political criminal" and a "female figure of sadly notable aspect". Rousseff ridicules such comparison, stating that she does not even remember many of the actions attributed to her. According to her former comrade and current colleague, Environment Minister Carlos Minc, her role in the group was sensationalized. "Because she is a very important person, they'll say anything about her."