First Lady Rosângela da Silva, cited the work “Inverted America”, by Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres-Garcia, in a post this Thursday about three years since the January 8th coup. The 1943 work is known as a declaration of independence from Eurocentrism in the arts, by showing the map of South America upside down.
According to Janja, the Uruguayan’s work “reminds us that our North is the South and that sovereignty begins with the look we take on ourselves”. The publication comes at a time when geopolitical uncertainties are heightening tension in Latin America, following the United States attack on Venezuela on Saturday.
“On this January 8th, three years after the coup attempt suffered by President Lula’s government, we celebrate our democracy and reaffirm our sovereignty and the importance of recognizing our history, our territory, our culture and the power of our people to decide their own future,” wrote the first lady.
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Veto on penalty dosimetry
In a ceremony marked by a strong political and electoral charge, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vetoed this Thursday the project that changed the dosimetry of the sentences applied to those convicted of the coup acts of January 8, 2023. The veto was signed during an event at Palácio do Planalto that marked three years since the invasion and depredation of the headquarters of the Three Powers, in Brasília.
The project vetoed by Lula became known in Congress as the “Dosimetry PL” and changed the criteria used by the Judiciary to calculate the penalties applied to those convicted of the acts of January 8th. One of the main points of the text changed the way in which sentences are added when a defendant is convicted of more than one crime committed in the same context, by prohibiting the so-called material sum of convictions. In practice, when crimes such as attempted abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law and a coup d’état were committed together, only the most serious penalty would be valid, and not the sum of the two convictions, as is the case today.
Furthermore, the project relaxed the rules for regime progression in crimes against the Democratic Rule of Law. The text provided for the application of the shortest possible prison time for regime change, without taking into account factors such as recidivism, use of violence or serious threat. In this way, convicts who showed good behavior could progress to the semi-open or open regime after serving at least 16.6% of their sentence. Currently, this percentage is 16%, but current legislation provides for stricter criteria for crimes of this nature, especially when they involve violence or attacks on institutions.
The presidential veto will now still be analyzed by the National Congress, where opposition parliamentarians and part of the Centrão are already articulating a possible overturn of Lula’s decision.
Members of the Lula government and the PT are betting on civil society pressure on parliamentarians to avoid overturning the presidential veto on the dosimetry bill.
The idea of announcing the veto in the act is part of the strategy designed by members of the government to try to mobilize society to pressure Parliament, in a political dispute over the issue.
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According to government officials, the objective is to seek social mobilization as was the case in the Blindagem PEC, last year, which led to the rejection of the matter in the Senate, after having been approved in the Chamber.
In this sense, they are betting on the discourse that has been promoted by members of the government in the clash with Congress, of a fight between poor and rich, “us against them”. In the opinion of Lula’s allies, this motto was one of those that contributed to the improvement of the PT government’s evaluation in recent months.
