Lula government keeps reports on June 2013 confidential – 06/26/2023 – Power

The Lula government (PT) decided to keep confidential a batch of 13 reports produced by intelligence agents from the Ministry of Justice of the Dilma Rousseff government (PT) during the day of demonstrations that began in June 2013.

The documents were classified as reserved by the authorities that produced them, which authorizes the maintenance of secrecy for five years. However, the Ministry of Justice states that there is no deadline for publicizing the documents because they are intelligence activities.

By rejecting the release of the documents requested by the Sheet through the Law on Access to Information, the federal government used the law that created the Brazilian Intelligence System (Sisbin) as a basis.

In one of its articles, the legislation states that Sisbin members are responsible for “safeguarding information against access by unauthorized persons or bodies”, without indicating any deadline for the end of secrecy of the documents produced.

The interpretation is the same adopted last year by the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, when the report tried for the first time to access the documents.

The decision, endorsed by Minister Flávio Dino (PSB), contradicts the interpretation adopted by the Federal Police, which, in 2019, made available intelligence reports on the period with deadlines for classification that had already expired.

On appeal, the Sheet pointed to the possibility of eternal secrecy of intelligence roles, an important source to analyze the performance of police forces in historical periods, such as the military dictatorship itself.

The General Coordinator of Intelligence, Carlos Sobral, agreed with “the legitimacy and relevance of the questioning” and forwarded a query to the Legal Consultancy of the Ministry of Justice for evaluation. However, the papers have not yet been made available – there is a pending appeal to be analyzed by the CGU (Controladoria Geral da União).

The director-president of the Brazilian Public Security Forum, Renato Sérgio de Lima, says that maintaining secrecy is not justified, especially considering that the authority that produced the documents imposed a restriction of just five years.

“Maintaining this secrecy, after five years, is almost a fetish. We know the story because the documents were declassified. It seems to be bureaucracy trying to prevent access to information. Not necessarily a government decision.”

The papers on the demonstrations are part of a list of documents considered declassified (with expired secrecy period) on the ministry’s own website. They were produced between June and November 2013 and have “social tensions” as their theme description.

The first document on the subject was produced, according to the table, on June 4, two days before the first major demonstration by the MPL (Movimento Passe Livre), when the acts had not yet spread across the country.

The escalation of demonstrations is reproduced in the intensification of the production of roles. New intelligence reports were prepared on the 7th, 10th, 18th and 27th of June. Throughout July, another four reports were produced, followed by one in August, two in October and one in November.

All appear as reserved and with an access restriction deadline of 2018. The secrecy period is defined by the authority responsible for producing the document. The Access to Information Act allows classification for up to 25 years in the case of top secret documents.

The papers were produced, according to the government, by the former Directorate of Intelligence. The ministry was commanded at the time by José Eduardo Cardozo.

The day of demonstrations took the Dilma government by surprise and generated additional concerns due to the beginning of the cycle of major events in the country. That year the Confederations Cup would be held and, the following year, the World Cup.

In November 2013, the Sheet pointed out that the federal government’s intelligence area identified that some protesters involved in acts of violence participated in different protests in more than one state in the country.

One of the sector’s activities, according to the report, was to film the protests against the Libra field auction, held in Rio de Janeiro on October 21st.

An intelligence agent from the National Security Force also infiltrated demonstrators on the eve of the World Cup. The Federal District military police ended up assisting in the investigations against the 23 activists accused of planning violent acts in Rio de Janeiro.

His testimony, however, was considered illegal evidence against those accused by the STF (Federal Supreme Court), because the infiltration was not authorized by a judge, as determined by law. It could only serve for the production of intelligence reports in order to subsidize the security planning of the protests.

The newspaper O Globo, in 2019, described intelligence reports produced by the Federal Police during the period of the demonstrations. The documents show infiltrated police officers in meetings at universities and demonstrations, indicating possible leaders, whose names were blacklisted in the documents made available.