The significant number of former presidents arrested in illustrating a more efficient justice, which is good but also more political use, which may be worrying, experts say.
It has shown that in the last 24 years, at least 20 former presidents of South America have been arrested. Most cases are related to corruption; Then comes attacks on democracy.
Brazil exemplifies the trend, with three occupants of the Planalto Palace arrested in this century because of the allegation of corruption: (), () ,, and ,.
() It can also be arrested if convicted in. He is an example of the second reason that most led to arrests of ex-mandators in the region: attack on democracy.
For Ricardo Gueiros, professor of law at UFES (Federal University of Espírito Santo), the number of former presidents arrested in South America draws attention and can be looked from two perspectives.
One would show that control institutions are working. “In the past, president was untouchable. Today, it is not so easy to escape from justice just because he held the highest position. This is a democratic breakthrough – such as” no one is above the law, “he says.
The same phenomenon, however, could be looked from a “more worrying” perspective, points out gueiros.
“In some cases, especially where the political system is very unstable, the judiciary ends up becoming a political actor. Justice is used as a weapon to take opponents of the game. What should be impartial becomes part of the dispute. We saw it a lot in Brazil with countries like and, where there are lawfare accusations. [uso da Justiça para perseguição política]”, it says.
The phenomenon, therefore, would show the fragility of institutions in the region, marked by personalist parties, opaque political funding and the temptation to use the public power for their own benefit, points out gueiros.
“And then, when the game has seen, those who leave are investigated and those who enter try to shield themselves. It’s a portrait of our democracy still under construction – with important advances, but also many risks,” he says.
For Flavia Loss de Araujo, doctor at USP and professor of international relations at the Mauá Institute of Technology, the various arrests in South America point to corruption as a problem with significant weight for societies in the region.
It speaks of a recent increase in legal tools in these countries to combat the problem, enhanced, in its interpretation, by the concentration of power in the officers who govern in presidential systems.
“Usually these presidents undergo an investigation process after they came out of power, which is when they lose strength, and often this is used as a political tool. Then the problem begins, as there may be a kind of justice,” he says.
For Lucas Damasceno, a specialist in Latin American policy and a doctor of international relations at USP, the arrests of former presidents of South America do not indicate an encouraging scenario, as they point out more for a co-optation of justice than for their strengthening.
He interprets that the recurrence of prison cases can generate instability in the democracy of these countries.
“Ecuador is an example. The country has created the political tradition of arresting former presidents and has legally predicted that presidents cannot leave the country for a year after leaving office, because the expectation is that they are investigated and arrested. It has a political system that has not been able to produce stability for almost 20 years,” he says.
Therefore, says Damasceno, the ideal is not to arrest former presidents, but to build a political system that prevents abuses of power in a previous way.
He states that the best step to this is to revise the way the institutions are built in order to prevent the excessive concentration of power and that people can use illegal means to get personal advantage or try to corrupt democracy.
