The president of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), chose the Secretary of Public Security of São Paulo Guilherme Derrite (PP-SP), who requested temporary dismissal from his position to resume his position as deputy, as rapporteur for the federal government’s Anti-Faction project. According to Motta, the idea is to transform the text into a Legal Framework for Combating Organized Crime in Brazil. The parliamentarians’ intention is to analyze the proposal next week.
The project sent by the federal government increases sentences for members of criminal factions to up to 30 years and creates mechanisms that increase the power of the State and police forces to investigate and financially stifle factions. The initiative adds to a list of movements by the Lula government to combat violence with the aim of reinforcing the president’s re-election project.
Derrite had taken leave from Tarcísio de Freitas’ government to report on another initiative, defended by the opposition, which equates criminal factions with terrorist groups, which was included on the agenda of the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) this week, but had the vote postponed.
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In posts on a social network, Derrite said that he must make changes to the text sent by the government. He listed four points that he should include in his report:
- Provision for a sentence of 20 to 40 years for conduct committed by members of criminal organizations, such as domination of cities, new gangaço, attacks on armored cars, installation of barricades, attacks on prisons, among others.
- Mandatory sentence in maximum security prison for leaders of criminal organizations;
- For these crimes, prohibiting the granting of amnesty, grace, pardon, parole and cutting prison aid for the criminal’s dependents;
- Increase in regime progression from the 40% predicted today to 70% to 85% (if the prisoner is a repeat offender resulting in death).
“It’s time to leave the platform aside and give an effective response to the population’s cry for help. Let’s work so that this objective is established”, wrote Derrite.
Government members denied the Globo that Motta’s decision to appoint Derrite as rapporteur was agreed with the Palácio do Planalto. The choice was classified as “very bad”. Derrite is critical of the government’s public security policy and a pre-candidate for the Senate.
For the leader of the PT in the Chamber, deputy Lindbergh Farias (RJ), the decision of the president of the House is “disrespect” for Lula.
— The choice made by President Hugo Motta is disrespectful towards President Lula. The anti-faction bill is a priority for the Lula government and placing it in the hands of Governor Tarcísio’s security secretary borders on provocation. It seems like a deliberate interest in not approving and disrupting the progress of the government’s priority agenda in the area of public security — said Lindbergh Farias.
Members of the opposition, on the other hand, celebrated Motta’s choice: “Excellent decision”, wrote senator Ciro Nogueira (PI), president of the PP and defender of Tarcísio’s candidacy for Palácio do Planalto in 2026.
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Faction x terrorists
Despite signaling Bolsonarism with the choice of Derrite to be the project’s rapporteur, Motta decided not to respond to a request from the opposition to unite the two projects in a single text. In his post, the former Secretary of Security of São Paulo did not mention that he will include in his report the equation of factions with terrorist groups.
A request to join the two projects was made by deputy Danilo Forte (União-CE), author of the anti-terrorism project, but was not accepted by the head of the House. Instead, he ordered the addition of Forte’s PL to the other anti-terrorism project authored by Congressman Sanderson (PL-RS).
The project articulated by the opposition gained importance after the police operation that left 121 people dead in Rio de Janeiro. The text expands the criteria adopted in current legislation on terrorism to classify factionalized traffickers.
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In the text supported by the government, members of groups such as CV and PCC, for example, would be classified as a “qualified criminal organization” crime, which provides for a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, up to 30 if it is classified as homicide.
The government’s base is against classifying the factions as terrorist organizations and even publicly demanded Motta not to join the anti-faction project.
— The government is strictly against, we are against this project that equates criminal factions with terrorism. Terrorism has a political and ideological objective, and terrorism, under international law, provides shelter for other countries to intervene in our country — said the Minister of Institutional Relations, Gleisi Hoffmann, on Wednesday.
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On the other hand, the opposition is pressing for the project to advance. Governors Claudio Castro (PL-RJ), Romeu Zema (Novo-MG), Jorginho Mello (PL-SC) and Ronaldo Caiado (União-GO) requested a meeting with Motta next Wednesday to talk about the matter.
The initial idea of the group opposing the government was to try to approve the anti-terrorism project in the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ). A session to vote on the initiative was scheduled twice this week, but there was no agreement and the meetings were postponed.
The opposition’s initiative has already had the urgency approved and could be discussed directly in the plenary, but as the government’s base works against the text, those interested in approving the initiative wanted to approve the project in the CCJ as a way of giving an impetus that would mean that it could be analyzed by the plenary.
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Gleisi even called deputies to reduce the number of participants in voting at the CCJ.
