In addition to resistance from governors, the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) for Public Security presented by the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is already facing reactions in the National Congress. Despite the coordination on the part of Palácio do Planalto, the expectation is that the text will be emptied during processing in the Chamber and Senate.
This week, for example, opposition parliamentarians, together with the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Cláudio Castro (PL), announced the discussion on a package of bills, such as a mini-reform of public security, to gain speed in the National Congress. The measure goes precisely against the PEC discussed by Palácio do Planalto.
Created by the Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, the Executive’s text envisages expanding the federal government’s power in public security. According to the Constitution, it is the responsibility of state governments to manage this area.
The PEC has not yet been filed, but, according to a draft presentation made to governors, changes are planned in five articles of the Constitution. Among these points, the federal government would have the power to establish general guidelines regarding public security policy, which would include the penitentiary system.
The draft also highlights that today the country has 27 different criminal record certificates, 27 possibilities for police reports and 27 formats for arrest warrants. According to the Ministry of Justice’s assessment, the standardization of data and information is essential for the Unified Public Security System to be effective.
As it is a PEC, the proposal must be approved by a qualified quorum in two rounds of votes in the Senate and the Chamber. In other words, at least 49 votes from senators and 308 from deputies.
Going against Planalto, members of the public security bench are articulating a bill to empty the Executive’s PEC. Created by deputies Alberto Fraga (PL-DF) and Alfredo Gaspar (União-AL), the text removes the centralization of decision-making from the hands of the federal government.
Security Bench rejects expansion of the powers of the PF and PRF and wants an inter-federative association
The federal government’s PEC increases the Federal Police’s investigative powers against militias, criminal organizations and environmental preservation areas. Furthermore, it creates the Federal Ostensive Police based on the structure of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), which currently only operates on highways; and constitutionalizes the Unified Security System (SUSP), empowering a national council to draw up a plan with “guidelines with mandatory observance” for federated entities.
According to deputy Alberto Fraga, the measure creates a “true national guard” and allows the PF to “impose itself over the civil police in some matters”.
“In summary, an increase in powers is proposed for the Union, taking upon itself the elaboration of a national policy and the coordination of the entire system, but remitting the costs to the states and the DF, as the fund to be created will only meet what that the Executive Branch establishes”, said the deputy.
To empty the federal government’s PEC, the Security bench’s text creates a model of collaboration between states through the creation of an interfederative association. This collegiate would be composed of the Union, states and the Federal District.
This association would aim to coordinate efforts, share intelligence and resources and promote integrated actions aimed at “prevention, repression, overt confrontation and carrying out all phases of criminal prosecution in relation to transnational criminal networks”.
In the project, the federal government would have 49% of the vote in decisions, while the states and the DF, 51%. The calculation of the vote of each federative unit would be proportional to public security spending.
According to deputy Alfredo Gaspar, this project had been in the works for at least four months and received positive signals from the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL). “We want to offer legal support to our agents and strengthen Brazil’s response capacity to criminal organizations operating inside and outside the country,” explained Gaspar.
The parliamentarians’ project also proposes to include the Brazilian Intelligence System (Sisbin) in combating crimes by transnational criminal organizations. Currently, this body is under the umbrella of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin). The text is currently being analyzed by the Chamber’s legislative consultancy and the authors’ expectation is that the process will begin before the PEC proposed by the federal government.
On the other hand, President Lula admitted that he intends to continue negotiations with the governors to try to approve the Executive’s PEC. “We don’t want to take over the powers of governors or the Military Police,” said Lula in an interview with Ready TV!shown last Sunday (10).
Opposition wants to give more autonomy to states
In addition to the attempt to empty the federal government’s PEC, opposition parliamentarians are discussing other projects to give states more autonomy in public security. The Chamber’s Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) discusses, for example, a bill that authorizes state governments to change the legislation of the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The proposal entered the agenda this Tuesday (12), but had to be postponed after the Agenda began in the Chamber plenary. If approved, the project will allow states to act on classifying crimes (except heinous, electoral and military crimes), increasing penalties, creating new crimes and toughening punishments and prisons.
“The representatives of the people, faced with reality, can decide to repress criminal types taking into account the level of disapproval of local society towards each specimen of crime”, says the author of the text, deputy Lucas Redecker (PSDB-RS ).
In the same vein, deputy Coronel Assis (União-MT) argues that it is necessary to give states autonomy to decide their penalties according to the reality of each region.
“We need to hand over this responsibility, within the limit, to the states, so that they can also give their fair share of contribution. It is unacceptable to think that a state that pays the bill for a heavy, extremely corrupt penitentiary system cannot tighten its actions within your state, according to your regionality”, he argues.
At the same time, senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) announced that the mini-reform discussed by him with the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), this week, aims to “compile all the proposals in progress into a single project that will be presented by the Senate Public Security Committee.” He reinforced that the proposals differ greatly from the Lula government’s PEC and will be voted much faster, as they do not require a quorum or more than one session for approval.
“It is obvious that with this proposal we do not intend to solve all public security problems in Brazil, but Rio de Janeiro in particular is a state that is suffering more than other entities in the federation”, explained the parliamentarian.
Governor Cláudio Castro emphasized the importance of partnership with the Legislature to advance public security projects. “We have to transform this tragic situation that happened in Rio de Janeiro into effective changes. There is a clear disagreement between current legislation and the current situation, that is, there is an incentive for crime today,” he said.
