House security bench confronts Minister Flávio Dino

The Public Security Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, mostly made up of right-wing and pro-police deputies, held its first meeting this Tuesday (21). And the focus was on the criticism and demands of the conduct of the area, by the federal government, specifically by the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino (PSB).

By little and only because of a government negotiation effort, he was not summoned to the collegiate to have to explain several conducts, statements and suspicions that, for the deputies, represent enormous setbacks in the fight against crime and violence in the country.

There were 15 requests to oblige him to go to the collegiate to explain himself on topics ranging from the visit he made to the Maré complex to the re-registration of weapons, as well as the public security crisis in Rio Grande do Norte. The possibility of a summons, however, is not ruled out.

One of the acts that most bothered parliamentarians was Dino’s request to Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), to investigate five deputies and two senators in the investigation of fake news. These deputies had suggested, on social networks and on the tribune of the Chamber, that the minister was on the 13th in the Maré complex, a place dominated by criminal factions in Rio de Janeiro, to negotiate with the Comando Vermelho.

Flávio Dino informed Moraes that he went there to meet with community leaders, in order to discuss public security policies – some of the NGOs present at the meeting militate against the police, whom they accuse of violence in poor communities. The Minister of Justice told Moraes that, by associating him with organized crime, the parliamentarians slandered him and even committed a crime of racism, because, in his view, they would have suggested that the entire community of Maré was made up of bandits.

In the posts, deputies Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ), Paulo Bilynskyj (PL-SP), Otoni de Paula (MDB-RJ), Gilberto Silva (PL-PB), and senators Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) and Marcos do Val (Podemos-ES) questioned how Dino would have entered the Nova Holanda favela, in Maré, with little security and without notifying the local authorities.

This Tuesday, in the Chamber, several of them criticized the minister for trying to intimidate them, asking that they be investigated by the STF. “I didn’t make any accusations, but we want to remove suspicions. To attack parliamentarians is to attack the Constitution. If the parliamentarian cannot ask questions, there is no democracy”, said Gilberto Silva.

Filipe Barros (PL-PR) defended Dino’s immediate summons to provide clarifications to the Chamber’s Public Safety Commission. “He does not want dialogue, he is prosecuting opposition deputies wanting to intimidate, with an attempt to persecute.” “It is sad to see Minister Flávio Dino wanting to silence the deputies on this tribune. President Bolsonaro, no matter how much he was attacked, never sued anyone”, said Luiz Lima (PL-RJ).

“Why do that, Minister? Did we lie? Are we missing the truth? Or are we just expressing the surprise of the people of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil with the freedom with which you move around in the communities of Rio de Janeiro, led by the Comando Vermelho?”, provoked Otoni de Paula, the target of the investigation request.

The pressure for the summons, however, goes far beyond the request for an investigation by deputies.

Deputies want more explanations about visit to Maré

Dino’s visit to Maré itself is the subject of requests for a summons to the Chamber’s Public Safety Commission. In his request, Deputy Helio Lopes (PSL-RJ) pointed out that “the minister entered without security into one of the most armed and violent communities in Brazil and the issues addressed were not issues such as disarmament or re-registration of weapons”. “Now, yes, the deaths caused by police actions were discussed. Why was the death of police officers not discussed?”, He justified.

In the plenary session, congresswoman Caroline de Toni (PL-SC) cited a report by People’s Gazette in which Colonel of the Military Police of Rio Fábio Cajueiro, former commander of operations in Complexo da Maré, says that no authority would enter there without the authorization of drug trafficking leaders.

“Flávio Dino, Your Excellency has to come here to the plenary and explain how you enter Complexo da Maré without a police escort, without informing any authority. What were you talking about and with whom? Your Excellency has to explain yourself!”, appealed Gilberto Silva, in a speech in plenary.

More deadline to re-register weapons in the PF is urgent demand

An urgent issue for these parliamentarians is the postponement, or even the revocation, of the decree, formulated by Dino and signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), which forced individuals to re-register their weapons with the Federal Police. Those who do not carry out the procedure by the end of this month will lose the right to carry or possess them and those who remain with the weapons will have to undergo stricter control by the PF.

This Monday (20th), when announcing that more than 600,000 weapons had already been re-registered, Dino said that the deadline would not be extended. This Tuesday (21), deputies from the security bench had a majority of votes, among the 38 members of the commission, to oblige the minister to appear next week to respond to criticism of the norm.

On Tuesday night, a group from the commission met with the minister at the portfolio’s headquarters. Dino promised an answer about the possibility of extending the deadline next week.

In addition to considering that the decree, as well as new restrictions on access to weapons planned by the government, lead to a reduction in the citizens’ right to self-defense, the deputies also consider that these measures will break shooting clubs, specialized stores and trainers, which have prospered in recent years with the more liberal policy of the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Facilitating the purchase and carrying of weapons, for these parliamentarians, was a decisive factor in the drop in the number of homicides from 2019 to 2022.

“We are going to show that this decree is absurd, it does away with merchants and shooting clubs. And the PF does not have the capacity to do this re-registration, because we have a million CACs”, said deputy Alberto Fraga (PL-DF) to the report, referring to hunters, shooters and collectors, a group that has managed, in recent years, to gain the right to acquire restricted-use weapons and more ammunition.

To make matters worse, deputies say that the re-registration site does not work properly. If the minister agreed to postpone or revoke the procedure, the deputies could give up his summons – which obliges him to appear and represents political wear and tear – and would agree to approve an invitation, provided that he commits to going to the commission.

Deputies who are more forcefully opposed to Dino wanted him to be summoned to go to the Security Commission on the next 28th – on the same date, he already agreed to appear voluntarily at the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ), a collegiate body, which, in the However, it is presided over and dominated by the government.

Other deputies on the security bench admit that he will go to the Security Commission, by invitation, on April 11, a date already accepted by him and negotiated by government deputies. “There is no intention of hiding a minister within a ministry. First one invites, then, not answering, one summons. Convocation is the hardest power that committees have to exercise. That would be to weaken the healthy relationship that we want to have throughout the entire legislature”, said this Tuesday, in the commission, deputy Rubens Pereira Júnior (PT-MA), who is negotiating on behalf of the government.

Deputies demand position on rebellions in Rio Grande do Norte

The parliamentarians also charge Dino on his stance in the face of the rebellion, promoted by criminal factions, which terrorized Rio Grande do Norte, governed by the PT, since last week. There were more than 300 attacks in 49 different cities.

According to Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), Governor Fátima Bezerra (PT) would be directly responsible for not investing in public safety. “It is no wonder that PMs are asking on video, as has happened recently, money, crowdfunding to repair the vehicle. This is the police of Fátima Bezerra, Lula’s colleague, to fight organized crime, ”she said.

This Monday, Dino announced the release of R$ 100 million to strengthen ostensible policing and the restructuring of the penitentiary system in the state – the revolt took place because prisoners complained about the conditions in prisons.

For right-wing deputies, the minister acted late. “While Flávio Dino was visiting Complexo da Maré, he left aside the biggest public security crisis in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. He just let that happen, over a week,” Jordy said on the House floor.

He also criticized the fact that the minister ruled out federal intervention in the state, including support from the Armed Forces. “All this causes a lot of strangeness, perhaps because the state of Rio Grande do Norte is commanded by a PT member, Fátima Bezerra.”

Last Sunday (19), in Natal, Dino said that Law and Order Guarantee operations (GLOs) do not resolve public safety. “The Armed Forces are a kind of extreme medicine. When the public security system, federal and state, completely collapses, which is not the situation we have here, you look for the GLO”, said the minister.