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Imagine your mother needs surgery in Rio Branco, but you live in Tarauacá. Imagine that your child gets a place at the university, but lives in Jordan. Imagine that your business depends on the arrival of goods every week, but the road is impassable. Now stop imagining: This is the reality of thousands of Acreans every year. And all this comes down to one thing: BR-364.
More than a federal highway, the BR-364 is a constitutional guarantee torn by the omission of the public power. It symbolizes, in its present state, a direct affront to the fundamental right to come and go, enshrined in article 5 of the Federal Constitution. It is not about asking for luxury or comfort. It is about demanding the least that any Brazilian citizen should have: access. Mobility. Security. Territorial continuity.
When such a road becomes impassable (or almost during the rainy season), it is not just asphalt that ruptures. The idea of federation, equality between states, distributive justice is broken. Above all, the dignity of the human person, cornerstone of the Republic, provided for in article 1, item III, of our Magna Carta.
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It was because it understood this, and for feeling the impact of the abandonment of 364, that state deputy Nicolau Júnior gave a class of political articulation and public spirit by leading the most expressive recent institutional mobilization of Acre. He joined state, federal, senators, mayors, technicians and civil society around a agenda that does not belong to a party, but to the people. This is the true policy: the one that serves, the one it connects, the one it does.
The Caravan by BR-364, organized under his leadership, had the merit not only to scream for help but to present solutions. What’s more, it has shown the population that it is possible to have transparency in the use of public resources, demand technical planning with realistic schedule, and charge structuring actions rather than shameful palliatives such as the already discredited “hole-tape”.
The Acre Legislative Assembly itself, with firm support from all parliamentarians, has shown that it is not content with passivity. The state legislature is positioned as protagonist, giving an example of surveillance, commitment and institutional responsibility. The signing of the “Declaration of Acre about the situation of BR-364” formalized what the citizen already knew, that the road is sick, and Acre is paying the bill with its own delay.
Governor Gladson Cameli, who has sought partnerships with the federal government to solve this historical problem, will find in this movement led by Nicholas a legitimate and necessary political support. What is expected now is that the federal bench, already instated to present amendments, remain cohesive, and that the Planalto Palace, through the Ministry of Transport and DNIT, understands that this is not any work, but of ensuring the health of the state itself.
Speaking of regional development in Acre without a BR-364 under minimum use conditions is a fallacy. How to attract companies, foster tourism, integrate productive chains and ensure agricultural flow if logistics is medieval? The entrepreneur gives up, the teacher gets tired, the doctor delays, the product makes it expensive, the patient is not enough. And so, “Acre Capenga”, as the mayor of Cruzeiro do Sul said, Zequinha Lima.
It can no longer be accepted that, in the middle of 2025, a child of Feijó or a Jordan pregnant woman is at risk of life because of a hole in BR. This is more than inefficiency, it is state omission with constitutional repercussion.
Therefore, it is necessary to recognize the work of Deputy Nicolau Júnior, after all, his firm and aggregating leadership not only put the theme on the agenda, but demonstrated that it is possible to do politics with decency. And also that of Governor Gladson Cameli, who strives for his duty to continue charging the reconstruction of the highway, but now, with the backing of all united and mobilized political class, and a vigilant society.
The BR-364 is not a road, it is the portrait of an Acre that requires respect. And if Brazil really wants to reconcile with the Amazon, to start where it begins: in Acre.
*Roraima Rocha is a lawyer; Founding partner of MGR – Maia, Gouveia & Rocha Advogados; Master’s student in Legal Studies Emphasis in International Law (Must University – USA); Specialist in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure (College Gran); Specialist in Civil Advocacy (Foundation of the Public Prosecution Service of Rio Grande do Sul – FMP); Member of the Prerogatives Commission, Secretary-General Court of Ethics and Discipline-TED, and chairman of the OAB/AC Criminal Law Commission.
