Opposition at CPMI on January 8 investigates Dino’s omission

Opposition representatives in the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) on January 8 ask the same question in all sessions: “Where was the National Force?”. The “mantra” is at the center of the investigation proposed by them, in the search for evidence to support the thesis that federal authorities were negligent to the point of having contributed to or even induced the acts of vandalism in Praça dos Três Poderes.

Even government allies already recognize the inaction of former Minister Marco Gonçalves Dias, when he was head of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). The opposition, however, considers the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, the main suspect of negligence in the face of the series of warnings he received from the intelligence sectors about serious risks of violence in public buildings.

Dino’s alleged omission, the oppositionists believe, could reach Lula. But they doubt that Senator Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA), Dino’s ally and CPMI rapporteur, will note any evidence of omission by the minister or the President of the Republic in her final opinion. However, they hope that the investigations will reveal hidden facts even before the commission was installed.

In addition to the testimony of Gonçalves Dias, the opposition counts on the examination of internal images of the Ministry of Justice on January 8 to confirm Dino as a spectator of the invasions and talking on the phone with Lula. In this sense, there are filed and unapproved requests for the breach of his telematic secrecy, to confirm location, times and interlocutors.

After the CPMI plenary approved the request to access images from the headquarters of his portfolio, the minister resisted handing them over as long as he could, claiming that they were part of the set of evidence raised by the confidential investigation at the Federal Supreme Court (STF). After the impasse that aroused harsh criticism, including from the president of the CPMI, deputy Arthur Maia (União Brasil-BA), the STF itself confirmed that the material could be shared, without any restriction or postponement.

Government officials tried to hide the minister’s responsibilities

The question about where the troops on standby from the National Public Security Force would be surpassed another one raised by government supporters about the competence or not of the minister to activate the troops. Planalto allies insisted that this was the exclusive attribution of the governors, transferring the responsibility for not triggering it to Ibaneis Rocha (MDB), from the Federal District. It was enough to read the law to empty the statement.

But the delay in mobilizing and finally summoning a small number of soldiers who actually acted brought new doubts. In this sense, Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR) requested data on the number of National Forces on January 8, in order to know the location of up to 800 soldiers and which ones were employed at the end. “The information I’ve received so far has been evasive,” he said.

Deputy Aluísio Mendes (Republicanos-MA) emphasized that Flávio Dino exercised authority over important federal security bodies in addition to the National Force, such as the Federal Police (PF) and the Federal Highway Police (PRF). He pointed out that, on January 7, both the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) and the director general of the PF, appointed by Dino, warned the minister about the tragic and imminent events. Despite this, no effective measures were taken to employ police under Dino’s control. “It is crucial to move forward in the investigation of aspects that Dino seems reluctant to clarify,” he said.

The parliamentarian recalled that the minister presented four versions of the time he would have arrived at the Palace of Justice on January 8, which naturally raises the question of which one is true.

Senator Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE) recalled that the press showed that the largest contingent employed by the National Force only arrived at the Esplanada dos Ministérios at 4:25 pm that Sunday. “Where was she? This is the great questioning of the CPMI. We cannot hide the dust under the rug, ”he said.

For the senator, the question about the National Force intersects with the facts already revealed by the images of the Palácio do Planalto, showing former minister Gonçalves Dias interacting friendly with invaders. In addition, it is supported by the group of alerts produced by Abin about encouraging invasions and occupation of buildings, including armed individuals.

Security plan was not implemented, confirms deponents

The security plan for January 8 was in charge of the National Secretariat for Public Security, which has its own intelligence service. This fact was confirmed by the former director of Abin, Saulo Moura Cunha, in a statement to the CPMI last week. He also revealed that he had directly warned Gonçalves Dias about the worrying movements on Sunday morning and, later, called personally to say he was convinced of the invasions.

An intelligence report and 32 alerts related to January 8 were distributed to a group of federal and district agencies, with 18 of the warnings being sent via WhatsApp even before the invasion of the buildings began. This reality led members of the opposition to suspect the decision-makers of these bodies to be omission.

Senator Izalci Lucas (PSDB-DF) pointed out that the Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Justice received 14 alerts, in addition to the report, before the acts of vandalism. “What is known is that, after that, General Gonçalves Dias, who was the authority responsible for Abin, ordered the director of the agency to exclude the name of the head of the GSI from the list of recipients of the warnings”, he said.

“Regardless of the governor, Minister Dino could have called the National Force. He called, but she arrived when everything had practically been done”, lamented the senator. He believes that it would be reasonable to expect a more forceful and proactive reaction from the Ministry of Justice, given that on the 7th, there was already confirmation that there would be invasion of public buildings.

For Deputy André Fernandes (PL-CE), accountability for the acts of January 8 was quickly directed to the authorities of the Federal District, which led to unfair arrests, such as that of the commander of the Military Police, Colonel Jorge Eduardo Naime, “who got into a fight with vandals and has been in prison for months”. The officer was off duty on January 8 and had been replaced a few days earlier by Colonel Paulo José Ferreira. On the day of the invasions, he arrested demonstrators and was injured by a rocket. “But whoever was serving water to the vandals is free, is not investigated or denounced”, said Fernandes.

The deputy understands that the government supporters are working to define a culprit to spare “someone bigger”, who ignored the GSI’s Escudo plans (to defend the Planalto Palace), and the Integrated Actions Protocol (PAI), which involves security authorities of the Union and the Federal District. In his view, the suspicion is further reinforced by Lula’s trip to Araraquara (SP) on the day of the invasions, which was only planned the afternoon of the previous day. “The impression I have is that the CPMI deals with two sides: that of the powerful untouchables and that of those who are carrying all the blame”, he summarized.

For senator, negligence was wide open by documents

Senator Esperidião Amin (PP-SC), who chaired the Congressional Commission for Intelligence Affairs (CCAI) in the previous period and during January 8, describes with the documents received by the collegiate, which was already known on January 6, at 7:40 pm, that the buildings at Praça dos Três Poderes would be invaded. At 8:00 am on Sunday, there were interactions between the Abin director and the head of the GSI, who later spoke around 1:00 pm.

“The Escudo Plan foresees that, in 25 minutes, the arrival of the battalion to protect the Planalto Palace. Because the negligence was so blatant, all speculation is valid. Who would it benefit? We are daring to know at the CPMI what many people knew”, questioned the senator. He resorts to a sentence by Lula, on January 12, 2023, to also ask “who opened the door”.

For Amin, the failure of the Escudo Plan is particularly worrying, as measures adopted by previous, less rigid versions were not seen, with bans on the Esplanada dos Ministérios, as was the case during the impeachment session of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016, for example. . “Where was the National Force?”, asks Amin, remembering that its headquarters is the Ministry of Justice.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) completes the question by asking why Dino “stayed in the box, watching everything, doing nothing, just like the GSI and the Presidential Guard Battalion”.

To show that Dino knew what was going to happen on January 8, Flávio Bolsonaro recalls that the letter from Andrei Rodrigues, head of the Federal Police, on January 7, at 6:51 pm, addressed to the minister suggested the use of the National Force, “notably to guarantee of public order and public and private property between the Brasília Bus Station and Praça dos Três Poderes”.