Security analysts consulted by People’s Gazette pointed out structural difficulties in the intelligence system in Brazil after the attack in front of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on Wednesday night (13).
The perpetrator of the explosions, Francisco Wanderley Luiz, who died with one of the explosive devices, had posted messages on his social networks before the incident that indicated preparation for the bomb attacks. He also had access, according to the Federal Police, to a large quantity of explosive material for making homemade bombs that were found in a house and in a trailer he rented.
In one of the posts he made on his Facebook profile, Francisco Luiz even said goodbye and left messages to the Federal Police, calling the action a “revolution to free the country” and that this would take place from November 13th to 16th. For public security specialist Marcelo Almeida, the episode shows the need to improve security forces that work with intelligence.
“This man mobilized a lot of things to get where he is. If he didn’t catch anyone’s attention along the way, something failed and it failed seriously”, he said. For the specialist, this was not someone with experience or training for violent acts, if Otherwise, it could have resulted in an even greater tragedy.
In addition to the public messages, Almeida questioned how Luiz had access to the explosive materials to create the bombs. “Even if they are fireworks, we don’t know if it was just that, but there is strict control over their sale. The quantity did not seem small. How did he buy it without it attracting attention?” he asks.
If the items were purchased on the legal market, Almeida states that there must be a record of the acquisitions with CPF, which will still be investigated by the police. But he considers it serious that he carried out all the acquisition and mobilization without attracting attention. “This could represent a serious security breach.”
Specialist Sérgio Leonardo Gomes, who worked in the federal intelligence service, made the same consideration. “If he had been planning this for a long time, how come he never drew attention to the preparatory acts, the purchase of the material, the way in which it was acquired? Questions that should draw attention to security in advance and that it will now be up to the investigation to answer.”
When commenting on the messages posted by Luiz on his social networks, Gomes highlighted the importance of prevention work. “Unfortunately things like this are posted all the time and probably less than 1% is actually a risk. I’m not saying that there were failures specifically in this case, but Brazil is not prepared, or does not take this type of prevention seriously”, he states.
Lawyer Alex Erno Breunig, a public security specialist and reserve colonel of the Military Police, says that explosions like those recorded this Wednesday in Brasília are difficult to prevent.
“In order to initiate an investigation or monitoring, there is a need for an open social media message to reach the authorities, either via complaint or through monitoring. Another alternative would be for the social network to be able to identify the risk and pass it on to the authorities.” He points out that none of the situations occurred.
DF Security Secretary defends monitoring of social networks
When dealing with possible failures in public security, the Security Secretary of the Federal District, Sandro Avelar, who is a Federal Police delegate, told CNN which did not directly identify security flaws, but stated that investigations are taking place in the Federal District (DF) and Santa Catarina, Francisco Luiz’s home state. The person responsible for the explosions had been living in the Federal District for three months. He even visited the STF on August 24 and posted photos and a text saying that “they let the fox into the hen house”.
Avelar also stated that he does not deal with the issue in isolation and that Praça dos Três Poderes is a very sensitive region as it is frequently visited. The secretary defended social media monitoring measures to track possible crimes in planning and that this will be facilitated with the creation of the anti-terrorism department in the DF.
“The messages posted [por Francisco Luiz] We are worried about social networks, it is difficult to identify a real threat or fallacy, our obligation is to try to determine what comes to our attention. We appeal to the community regarding profiles willing to commit a crime, to report it, go to the reporting hotline without identification. [É preciso] create tools so that society, when it becomes aware of people with this profile, helps the Civil Police or the Federal Police so that we can anticipate, we have resources to monitor, but it is not easy to do with a huge number of people who use the networks social, [separar] what is a real threat and what is a fallacy.”
But the problem is not just in the messages posted on the social network. Gomes points out that, in addition to “permanent monitoring on social networks, it is necessary to collect profiles of people at risk to society from high school, universities, police records, complaints”.
Breunig also pointed out that the difficulties in monitoring the place where the act occurred, the lack of police structure to monitor open social networks, among other factors, mean that responsibilities for the event cannot be attributed solely to public security authorities, but to the limitations of tools made available by the State itself.
“The great difficulty is to reconcile public security with the right to privacy, intimacy and free expression of opinions. The State must provide better structures for monitoring open social networks, greater control of explosives, greater rigor in policing, having structure, with personnel, equipment and programs, monitoring open social networks can be done very efficiently, but it is also not immune to failures”, he reinforces when evaluating that there are countless similar posts that are bluffs and that this would require a huge number of personnel dedicated solely to investigations.
The lawyer assesses that there are structural deficiencies and also in the execution of the actions. “But it seems to me that the preponderant factor is the reduced structure available. There are technologies and methods to reduce the risks of this type of situation occurring, but there are no guarantees of the effectiveness of the measures without this resulting in severe restrictions on individual rights and freedoms”.
Investigation will hear from people close to the perpetrator of explosions
The Federal Police (PF) opened an investigation to investigate the case as a “terrorist act” and an attempt to violently abolish the Democratic Rule of Law. The Security Secretary of the Federal District, Sandro Avelar, stated that people close to Francisco Luiz will be interviewed with the aim of understanding whether he was “a lone wolf” or whether he acted with the help of other people.
Gomes says he is convinced that the explosion in Brasília was something isolated, carried out by a possibly unbalanced person, without any professional knowledge of attacks and without preparation for action.
The expert emphasizes the importance of deepening the investigations, but argues that it is necessary to be cautious with regard to people who have no connection with the explosion and who may eventually be considered accomplices. “Imagine who participated in a group [nas redes sociais] in which [Francisco Luiz] participated, his life could be ruined and he could be the target of an investigation. We hope the government does not use this isolated episode as a pretext to launch a new witch hunt.”
The DF Security Secretary also confirmed that more explosives were located in the house where the 59-year-old man was living, some of which exploded after federal police arrived at the scene, during a sweep with a robot. There were also explosives in a trailer used by Luiz and in the car that exploded in the parking lot of annex 4 of the Chamber of Deputies, near Praça dos Três Poderes, all indicating that there had been months of planning.
“The police are not always able to anticipate, the Federal Police has a specific sector for this work and Governor Ibaneis Rocha ordered the creation, in the Civil Police of the Federal District, of an anti-terrorism division that will help the PF in the intelligence sector”, he said.
Francisco Wanderley Luiz was a candidate for councilor for the PL in Rio do Sul (SC), in 2020, but was not elected. Despite the party connection, he also posted messages on his social networks against Jair Bolsonaro (PL) saying that he should, together with Lula, move away from politics to put an end to polarization.
On Wednesday, around 10pm, Meta took down Francisco Luiz’s Facebook profile on the grounds that it did not agree with people using the platform to promote or encourage acts of violence. It was on the social network that the locksmith published a series of indications that he would commit the acts in the federal capital.
Inquiry for “terrorist act and against the Democratic Rule of Law” will be processed by the PF under secrecy
At a press conference this morning, the general director of the PF, Andrei Rodrigues, said that the investigation will be carried out under secrecy. The investigations are carried out on two fronts: a terrorist act and an attempt to violently abolish the Democratic Rule of Law. Due to these hypotheses, the investigation was submitted to the STF, where it is under the rapporteur of minister Alexandre de Moraes.
“There are signs of long-term planning, this person was in Brasília on other occasions and according to reports from family members, he was in Brasília at the beginning of 2023. It is still too early to say whether he had direct participation in the events of January 8th, this the investigation will point out”, he described, without mentioning possible security flaws.
“This person was carrying a fire extinguisher loaded with fuel that simulates a flamethrower, which reiterates the seriousness of what we found […] We still don’t know the motivation for the crime, we are working with terrorist actions and the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.”
The PF director also said that the case may be connected to other investigations that are on the PF’s radar, without going into detail about what they are about. Rodrigues defended the regulation of social networks so that preventive investigative action can occur more effectively.
During his participation in an event held this Thursday morning, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who will be the rapporteur of the inquiry, also spoke again about the regulation of social networks.
“What happened is not an isolated event. The PF will analyze, God grant it to be isolated, but the context that began way back with the office of hate, which began to distill hate speech against institutions, against the STF, the autonomy of the judiciary, not only as an institution, but against the ministers and families of each of the ministers, it grew larger.”
