Lula’s security returns to the military in defeat for the PF – 06/28/2023 – Politics

President Lula gave the thumbs up to his personal security, which will return to the responsibility of the GSI (Institutional Security Office) military personnel.

The decision was taken this Wednesday afternoon (28), in a meeting with ministers Rui Costa (Casa Civil), Marcos Antonio Amaro (GSI) and Flávio Dino (Justice and Public Security).

The change represents a defeat for Dino and for the Federal Police, who sought to keep the assignment under their tutelage.

After the meeting, Minister Rui Costa stated that it was a “hybrid” model, with the participation of the military, federal police and eventually state police. However, he pointed out that coordination will be the responsibility of the GSI.

Lula’s decision was taken two days before the deadline for the decree that created the Sesp (Extraordinary Secretariat for Presidential Security), which was allocated in the presidential office. Dino added that the secretariat will be extinguished because “there is no more reason to exist”.

The government ended up adopting a kind of hybrid model, with the participation of members of the PF, but under the command of the GSI.

This alternative had already been raised by palace assistants, but was being resisted by the PF. Members of the corporation even said, privately, that the model could fail and endanger the security of the authorities, since they operate in different systems.

Sesp is linked to the presidential office and only deals with the immediate security of the Chief Executive, Vice Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) and their family members. The other two protection circles, close and far, were still in charge of the GSI.

The immediate one is personal security. In the approximate, military act next to the representative in events and trips, in addition to establishing parameters for emergency situations.

The remote one is composed of those responsible for sweeping and ostensive surveillance at event locations, with the help of other security forces.

The weeks leading up to the announcement were backstage clashes and noise at the top levels of government. Last Thursday, Dino made a statement contrary to what Costa and Amaro had said, in the sense that presidential security would return to the GSI.

Presidential security has become the subject of dispute in recent months, opposing the Federal Police and the new head of the GSI, General Marcos Antonio Amaro.

Since the beginning of the year, this activity was the responsibility of federal police. One of the first acts of the government was the creation of the Extraordinary Secretariat for Immediate Security, whose head was delegate Alexsander Castro de Oliveira.

The ordinance that created the body, however, provided that it would exist on an extraordinary basis until June 30th. The federal police, who have been using their own resources to carry out these security activities, intended to make it permanent.

The issue of presidential security began to be debated even during the performance of Lula’s transitional cabinet. The then president-elect and his allies wanted to reduce the attributions of the GSI, a body that was closely linked to his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro (PL), in particular with the performance of the former minister, General Augusto Heleno.

For this reason, Lula decided even before his inauguration that his security would pass to the Federal Police.

The situation began to change with the inauguration of Marcos Antonio Amaro in the GSI, replacing also general Gonçalves Dias, in April. The general, a close friend of the president, left the government after the leak of images from the camera system of the Planalto Palace, on the day of the coup acts on January 8.

Amaro, in his first interviews, already announced that presidential security would return to GSI, a movement that was not reprimanded and did not face public denials by Lula and other palace ministers.