‘Lula’ denounces that some police and military colluded with assailants

The latest statements by the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva are fuel for the debate on the actions of the Military Forces and the Police on January 8, when Bolsonarists stormed the offices of the Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court.

‘Lula’ said that he wanted to “see the videos recorded inside the Supreme Court, inside the (Planalto presidential) Palace. There were a lot of conniving people. There were many conniving members of the Police, many conniving members of the Armed Forces here.”

According to the president, he has not yet discussed his suspicions with his team, since he says he is waiting for the tension to drop, in addition that he is “convinced that the door of the Planalto Palace was opened for those people to enter, because there is no door Broken. It means that someone facilitated their entry here.”

Harsh accusations that point directly to a sector of the Army and the police. Those in charge of the security of the place are members of the Presidential Guard, an Army battalion and agents of the Military Police of Brasilia, in some of the revealed videos they are seen fraternizing with the assailants.

The president reportedly complained to his allies about the inaction of the Armed Forces and their inability to anticipate the attacks, and said that “the image” he has “is of an Armed Forces that know that their role is defined in the Constitution. The The Armed Forces are not the moderating power they think they are. Their role is defined in the Constitution and it is what I want them to do well done.”

In Brazil, the high support that Jair Bolsonaro and his far-right allies have among members of the Army and the Police is well known. An issue that has significantly concerned sectors close to the Workers’ Party of ‘Lula’ da Silva and that the Bolsonaro supporters are aware of, since they have been trying for weeks to call the armed forces for a military uprising to eliminate the victory of the leftist .

To avoid these situations, the president affirmed that he has already begun a personnel selection process to remove the Bolsonaristas who work in the Presidency. “The truth is that the Palace was full of Bolsonaristas, of the military, and we are seeing if we can correct that to put career officials, preferably civilians who were here and were transferred,” he said.

In addition, he recalled that “what happened was a great warning, we won the elections, but Bolsonaro’s fanatical supporters are very dangerous,” adding that “from now on we will be tougher and even more cautious. We must find out who finances these acts, that It’s what puts democracy at risk.”

Despite the requests of his supporters to request the resignation of Defense Minister José Mucio, ‘Lula’ said that he will continue in office and that he trusts him, and that “if I had to fire a minister every time he commits a mistake, the change would be enormous.

American Democrats against Bolsonaro

In the United States House of Representatives, a group of 41 members of the Democratic Party asked the administration of President Joe Biden to collaborate with the investigations into the assault in Brasilia and to revoke the US visa of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is in the state of Florida.

The petition was sent through a letter seeking the Government to support democracy and the rule of law in the South American country. “In addition, we must not allow Mr. Bolsonaro or any other former Brazilian official to take refuge in the United States to escape justice for any crimes they may have committed while in office,” the letter said.

Officials from the State Department and the White House have not responded to the letter that was led by US representatives Gregory Meeks, the main Democrat and former chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, Joaquín Castro, Rubén Gallego, Chuy Garcia and Susan Wild.

The US State Department has repeatedly said that its policy is not to discuss specific visa cases. For his part, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Washington had not received any specific request from Brazil about Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro flew to the United States two days before his term came to an end on January 1 of this year.

Asset Freeze Request

This Thursday, the General Attorney of the State of Brazil made a request to the Justice to be able to block some 6.5 million reais, which is equivalent to about 1.3 million dollars, which belong to 52 people and 7 companies that could have financed Sunday’s assault.

For the defenders, these individuals and legal entities “financed the bus charter for the coup acts that resulted in the destruction” of the offices of the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court in Planalto.

The list of assets that they asked to block includes “real estate, vehicles and money in bank accounts.” With the money from the embargo, it is intended to “repair the damage caused by the depredation of public assets, in the event of a subsequent conviction,” said the note from the General Counsel and stresses that the requested value is preliminary, since there is still no value end of damage.

Criticism for the use of facial recognition software

The idea of ​​the Brazilian Police to use facial recognition to find the protesters who broke into the headquarters of the Government has raised the alarm of privacy and human rights experts.

This Tuesday the Police announced that they will use biometrics to find those responsible. In 21 of the 27 states, this technology is already used to control urban transportation or monitor school attendance.

Human rights groups claim that there is no clarity on its use, there have been no public consultations on its operation and data protection.

Authorities justify this type of surveillance on security grounds, but surveillance experts warn of potential problems with privacy violations and potential profiling, as well as potential discrimination against Black and Indigenous people.

According to Panoptico, a project that monitors the use of facial recognition in Brazil, since 2019 90% of people detained when facial recognition technology was used were black.

For Matt Mahmoudi, a researcher at Amnesty Tech, an arm of Amnesty International that counters digital repression, “as a mass surveillance tool, facial recognition is a fast-paced patch solution that demonstrably fails time and time again in meeting the security goals it purports to enable,” he added, “it also erodes fundamental rights. Historically, marginalized communities are particularly at risk, as is the privacy of Brazilians in general.”

After the protests some 1,800 people were arrested, but a third were released for humanitarian reasons, although they remain linked to the process

With EFE and Reuters