June 2013: NYT judge avoids yellow shirt – 05/31/2023 – Politics

In the first minute of conversation to talk about his participation in the June 2013 demonstrations, retired judge Silvio Mota, 78, clarifies, without being asked.

“That green and yellow shirt wasn’t for the national team, no. It was for the Public Ministry,” he says, referring to the campaign against PEC 37 being discussed at the time in Congress, which took away the body’s power of investigation. The proposal was shelved after the demonstrations.

Former colleague of Carlos Marighella at ALN (National Liberation Action), Mota graced the cover of newspapers such as Sheet and the New York Times by standing in front of and glued to the shields of the riot police of the Ceará PM in the surroundings of the Castelão stadium.

The former labor magistrate claims that, weeks after the act, he was summoned by the Public Ministry to clarify his participation in the protest.

“Instead of getting any thanks for wearing their shirt, I was summoned and interrogated to see if they could prosecute me,” he said.

The retired judge considers that the Dilma Rousseff government and the PT lost by not “taking a step forward”, supported by the demonstrations.

“That march was organized by the MST. At that march we were asking for a leftist platform. What was underlying was the advancement of the process. What happened was that Dilma and the PT did not realize that. It was for her to have more power. But that police that was there was the National Force. That’s what reformism is all about,” he said.

“There was a very strong feeling of frustration among the workers. The PT didn’t even know how to defend itself in the impeachment process. It was necessary to take a step forward. The worker would look: ‘These people there are nothing. I don’t want any more.'”

Mota says he does not regret the support given to the Public Ministry, even considering the body’s role during Operation Lava Jato, criticized by the left.

“The police would be superpowered if they didn’t have that control. It was the right thing to do.”

He also claims that he started to avoid yellow shirts, after they became associated with supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The only exception is the one on Marighella’s face.

“I’ve been going out in demonstrations with shirts with Marighella’s face. There’s black, white and yellow. Having Marighella’s face is different.”