Calheiros uses Foreign Affairs Commission against military and CACs

In charge of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Commission (CRE) for three weeks, Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL) is guiding a series of topics in the collegiate with the aim of investigating military postures in the conduct of the pandemic and in acts of vandalism on January 8th. The Emedebista senator, an ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), also wants to annul measures in favor of carrying weapons, adopted by former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), in addition to having helped the Planalto remove key posts from diplomats linked to the former president.

In the first three sessions that he chaired so far, Calheiros was questioned by his peers due to the “biased course” of the work. Senator Esperidião Amin (PP-SC), who preceded Calheiros in command of the collegiate, said that “the list of strange matters that was brought by the president [Renan Calheiros à comissão]”. “They reflect national political conflicts and, therefore, should be debated in the plenary of the Senate”, he observed.

Calheiros ruled out any revanchism against Bolsonaro’s military and allies. He said that he collaborates with Lula’s plan for the areas of defense and diplomacy and that “vigilance for democracy” is among the commission’s attributions. In practice, however, he rescued proposals from the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on Covid, of which he was rapporteur, and added others to it. In this sense, the priority is to typify crimes of “genocide against humanity”.

Putting the pandemic back on the political agenda is part of Calheiros’ strategy to credit Bolsonaro and the military with mistakes. It is not by chance that the collegiate he presides over should discuss the participation of General Eduardo Pazuello, elected federal deputy by the PL-RJ, at the head of the Ministry of Health. In addition, controversies involving officials, such as the episode of jewelry presented to the former president by the Saudi government, involving Admiral Bento Albuquerque, then Minister of Mines and Energy, and Bolsonaro’s former aide, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid , will be evaluated.

In the first deliberative meeting at the head of the CRE, Calheiros sent a direct message to the military, recalling that article 142 of the Constitution is explicit in linking the Armed Forces to the defense of the Democratic State of Law. With regard to foreign relations, his speeches repeat the recurring criticism of Lula’s allies that the Bolsonaro administration made the country a “world pariah”. “Brazil has returned to the center of attention. The world missed us”, said Calheiros.

In order to carry out what he considers a reconfiguration of Brazilian diplomacy, the first task of the president of CRE was to identify, in partnership with Itamaraty, the last diplomats aligned with the previous government and who were still stationed in outposts. The following removals involve representations in embassies, consulates and international organizations around the world.

In this tone, the Planalto suspended 16 names indicated by Bolsonaro to take up vacancies abroad and that would be submitted to the commission’s scrutiny, while it prepares another list. Reinforcing this “clean”, Calheiros wants to create a model to streamline the legislative process for choosing diplomats, in order to guarantee greater political alignment.

Opposition criticizes the presence of themes foreign to the collegiate

Faced with CRE’s reorientation of focus, Senator Esperidião Amin (PP-SC) asked that the commission have access to data from the Institutional Security Office (GSI) from January 2 to 8, the period that precedes and culminates in the acts in Brasília. Opposition senators also demanded information from the Lula government on the revocation of the waiver of visa applications from Brazil to visitors from Australia, Canada, the United States and Japan, with impacts on tourism.

“I want to hear from the ministers the reasons for the change, in the role of opposition parliamentarian and representative of a state that receives a large number of foreign tourists”, said Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ).

But the special focus of the senator from Alagoas is really on internal affairs. Last Thursday (23), the members of CRE, chaired in the session by deputy Cid Gomes (PDT-CE), approved the work plan of the collegiate for the 2023-2024 biennium, proposed by Renan Calheiros.

Although the text avoided explicit criticism of the previous government and the military, it highlighted themes of diplomacy during the Lula administration, such as environmental conservation and relations with emerging countries, and showed the intention to advance the debate on the legal frameworks of the defense and intelligence sectors.

In this sense, the plan cites three documents prepared by the Congressional Committee for the Control of Intelligence Activities present in the Draft Legislative Decree (PDL) 1,127/2021, already approved by the Senate: the National Defense Policy (PND), the National Defense (END) and the National Defense White Book (LBDN).

Calheiros proposes the holding of periodic public hearings to address the Brazilian intelligence system and the constitutional role of the Armed Forces, with the possibility of even creating subcommittees to address these specific issues.

In addition to the usual requirements for holding public hearings with the ministers of Defense, José Múcio, and of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, the commission also approved an invitation to the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, and the deputy director of the Intelligence Agency (Abin), Alessandro Moretti, in order to obtain information about the alleged use, during the Bolsonaro government, of a secret program to illegally monitor the location of people through their cell phones.

A way found by Calheiros to act more firmly in the intelligence area is to revitalize the Joint Committee for Control of Intelligence Activities (CCAI) formed by the presidents of the Foreign Relations Committees of the House and Senate. This year it is chaired by deputy Paulo Alexandre Barbosa (PSDB-SP) and has the senator as deputy and rapporteur. In 2024, they switch roles.

Calheiros wants CRE and CCAI to investigate jointly an alleged irregular monitoring of citizens by Abin, in addition to proposing the body’s restructuring. At the beginning of the month, Lula transferred the GSI agency to the Civil House, as he was uncomfortable with its “militarization” under Jair Bolsonaro.

Congress has little room to make carrying guns more flexible

Renan Calheiros also defined immediately that the CRE will act in favor of stricter control over the circulation of weapons in the country. On March 16, at the first meeting of the board after he was elected president, the senator announced the creation of a working group to study gun control in the hands of collectors, hunters and sport shooters (CACs).

The anti-gun decree issued by Lula on the day of his inauguration has already generated nearly two dozen bills or legislative decrees in Congress. The president’s decision suspends registration for the acquisition and transfer of arms and ammunition for use restricted to CACs and private individuals. The number of registered common guns plummeted in the period.

Opposition legal advisors in the House and Senate admit they have not yet found the best way to reverse the effects of the government decree and other measures that put an end to the flexibility of the previous government. As the Federal Supreme Court (STF) gave the green light to the revocation of Bolsonaro’s regulatory acts to give more access to the purchase and possession of weapons, the chances of an effective reaction were restricted.

“In fact, the text of the Armament Statute Law 10.826/2003 leaves room for interpretation and for being even more restrictive. The current government should take advantage of this to tighten the rules”, evaluates Fidelis Fantin, budget consultant for the Chamber of Deputies and a scholar of arms regulation. According to him, for the opposition, it remains to present a bill (PL) to rescue flexibility.

“The legislative decree could even serve to suspend a government decree or ordinance seen as abusive, but this does not seem to be the case now”, he concluded. Resorting to the Judiciary does not seem to be a viable alternative either. The ideal for the opposition would be, in his view, to improve PL 3.722/2012, which regulates the carrying of weapons in the country, in addition to revoking the Armament Statute. “Anyone who has a gun today is very uncomfortable, and can easily be put in an illegal situation, like when legal weapons became illegal due to the Statute”, stresses Fantini.

In the legal field, the specialist assesses that there could be a deep debate about the legal contradictions of criminalizing someone just for having a certain object, without having actually committed a crime.

“Criminalizing someone without characterizing an action that causes harm to third parties is appalling. It is an eminently ideological approach, without rationality”, he argues. Finally, he doubts that the government will be able to fulfill its promise to re-register all weapons, as there are items ignored by heirs.