Government supporters shield Lula’s allies at CPMI on January 8

The rejection of requests to summon the former head of the Institutional Security Office (GSI), general Marco Gonçalves Dias, to the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on January 8th generated an assessment among the opposition that the governing body of the collegiate is trying to shield names linked to the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). Even the president of the CPMI, Arthur Maia (União-BA), acknowledged that the government move could jeopardize the credibility of the investigations conducted by the collegiate.

GDias, as Lula’s former head of GSI is known, has become an important character for investigations into acts of vandalism at the Planalto Palace on January 8 after images of him walking and directing invaders on the day of the act were revealed. After that, he resigned from his position and had to give a statement to the Federal Police. GDias is also suspected of omitting, in a report sent to parliamentarians on January 20, that he had been receiving warnings from the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin), two days earlier, about the possibility of violent acts on January 8 in Brasília.

Despite the suspicions about the actions of Lula’s former GSI, the governing base – which makes up two thirds of the 32 seats of the CPMI – managed to avoid calling him in the first vote on requirements that took place in the collegiate this Tuesday (13). In addition to him, the opposition was unable to sign any name it had requested.

On the other hand, the commission approved the summons of 35 people, most of them linked to former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL): former Minister of Justice, Anderson Torres; Bolsonaro’s former assistant, Colonel Mauro Cid; Augusto Heleno, former chief minister of the GSI in the Bolsonaro administration; Braga Netto, Bolsonaro’s former Minister of Defense and Chief of Staff; between others. A request for access to information extracted from a breach of secrecy on Bolsonaro’s cell phone, made by the PF during Operation Venire, which investigates alleged fraud in vaccination cards, was also approved, amid protests from the opposition.

The referrals show the government’s strategy, previously outlined in the work plan of the rapporteur, Senator Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA), of trying to outline a narrative that there was an attempted coup d’état on January 8, and that the former President Jair Bolsonaro would be his “intellectual mentor”.

For oppositionists, however, this method shows the government’s fears and shielding the CPMI. They claim that the orchestrated action during the voting of the requirements in this Tuesday’s session made evident the government’s intention to obstruct any investigation that proves the leniency of the Planalto, in addition to demonstrating an attempt to shield GDias, Minister Flávio Dino (Justice) and, finally, President Lula himself. Currently, security breaches are officially credited only to the Federal District.

“Although it was proposed by the opposition, as a minority right, the CPMI ended up hijacked by the government, which imposed selective investigation into the facts and shielding around certain characters. Everything to justify his partial narrative, which hides the truth”, said senator Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE) to People’s Gazette. He points out that it is not a coincidence that the commission has six parliamentarians from Maranhão, state of Flávio Dino. “They prevent us from investigating his (Dino) contradictions and what he did on January 8”, he protested.

For senators Esperidião Amin (PP-SC) and Izalci Lucas (PSDB-DF), the biggest fear is that the restrictions imposed by the government supporters will continue and even reach the analysis of already known evidence, such as confidential reports from the National Intelligence Agency (Abin ), which are held by the joint commission that oversees the body. “Will we have to go to the Federal Supreme Court?”, asked Izalci, champion of applications at the CPMI, all of which were barred.

On Twitter, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) said it was “unbelievable” that GDias was not called up. “Simply him, who supposedly helped invaders and would have falsified Abin’s report, stay out? Is he the one who is the trigger for the opening of the CPMI?”, he questioned, recalling that the commission was installed only after the revelation, by CNN, of the images of Lula’s former minister circulating among invaders of the Planalto Palace.

Opposition complains that questions will remain open

For the opposition, difficult questions for the government still hang in the air, such as the reason for the Planalto to have decreed secrecy over videos of the closed circuit, later leaked; the reason for the presence of GDias in the place; Lula’s inertia in the case of having learned of the general’s presence; the reason for the inaction of the Army and the National Force after receiving 11 warnings about the risk of vandalism; the role of the Minister of Justice in these episodes; and, finally, why the former head of the GSI removed the attack alerts from the Abin report sent to Congress.

The president of the CPMI, Arthur Maia (União Brasil-BA), offered no resistance to the juggernaut of the government members in this Tuesday’s session, by rejecting the opposition’s requests, but admitted the risk of this posture eroding the commission’s image and harming its acting.

“I consider the rejection of requests to hear people who are at the center of the episodes of January 8 to be bad for the credibility of the works”, he pointed out.

In addition to seeing the request to hear GDias denied, the opposition was also frustrated with the rejection of the request of six parliamentarians to hear the Reuters agency photographer Adriano Machado, seen in images of the closed circuit cameras in the Planalto Palace during the invasion of the 8 de Janeiro, photographing the action of the vandals. Opposition deputies and senators want to know whether or not the acts were staged, as the images suggest.

“The absence of the summons of Gonçalves Dias, caught in the arena of facts, contrasts with all the other approved decisions”, observed Senator Marcos do Val (Podemos-ES). In addition to the request for documents from Abin being left in the background, Do Val’s proposal to investigate President Lula’s travel plan to Araraquara on January 8, seen by him as a withdrawal of the president from the scenario in capital.

Access to internal images of the Palace of Justice and Itamaraty on the day of the invasions was also rejected, considered by the senator as essential to explore possible contradictions in Dino, as well as telephone records of the minister that would reveal his location and his reactions.

A video of Do Val, shown by the CPMI when it was briefly presided over by the second vice-president, Senator Magno Malta (PL-ES), and with a reduced presence of government supporters, showed Dino stating that he saw the invasion of his office and then telephoned Lula, a statement later refuted by the minister. Do Val also said that there was a breach of security protocol, which would have been revealed by the dismissal of soldiers and the absence of bars and lines of containment formed by the military.

Opposition complains of exclusion in previously agreed decisions in secret meetings

Repeating a modus operandi adopted in the Covid CPI, parliamentarians linked to the Planalto, under the coordination of the government leader, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (without party-AP), began to combine their actions in the commission on the eve, to explore the condition of majority and preventing spaces for the opposition to react. The new way of acting in the form of a block was enshrined in the vote of the session on Tuesday (13), when Randolfe only informed the president of the CPMI, deputy Arthur Maia (União Brasil-BA), about the agreed procedures.

Magno Malta, the second vice-president of the CPMI and the only representative of the opposition on the committee’s table, said that he was being “left out of the decisions”. He had also asked Maia to accompany him to the meeting with Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), on the afternoon of Tuesday (13), in which the gradual transfer of documents from the Court on the episode was agreed, Malta’s request was also denied.

Senator Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF), in turn, complained about having been informed by the press of a backroom deal to make Bolsonaro’s assistant one of the first heard by the commission. “There needs to be transparency. These closed decisions with only government representatives make it difficult for me to decide how to vote for the CPMI from now on,” she said.

The next session of the CPMI on January 8th is scheduled for Tuesday (20th), when other requests will be voted on and the first hearings will be scheduled.