Package is worth little if scammers believe in impunity – 01/26/2023 – Bruno Boghossian

When the country dawned on January 8, a law in force already defined the attempt to depose a government as a crime. The Federal District police had more than 10,000 agents in their battalions, a military troop was at the disposal of the Planalto Palace and the main social media platforms claimed to monitor attacks on democracy on their pages.

That Sunday, the coup plotters ignored the law, confronted the Military Police, made light of the timid presence of the Army and used the networks freely to publicize, live, the crime that was being committed.

The attack did not take place in a vacuum of rules and security forces. The destruction of the headquarters of the three Powers, however, was proof that these barriers were insufficient to contain the coup d’état that took root in large Bolsonarist groups over the last few years.

The Ministry of Justice presented Lula with a package to try to patch these holes. The focus is on toughening penalties and changing the security structure of public buildings in Brasília. The initiative makes sense, but the list of measures proposed by the Ministry suggests that the greatest threat to democracy in the country is impunity.

The legislation that exists today establishes up to 12 years in prison for anyone who tries to overthrow a government. Increasing the penalty should only discourage coup adventures if those who flirt with the idea are certain that they will be identified, tried and convicted.

The package also provides for the creation of a national guard to protect the Planalto Palace, Congress and the STF. Even if it obeys the orders of the federal government, the new troops will not be very useful if the agents believe that they can act with the indifference of other forces.

The same goes for rules that would force networks to remove undemocratic content. Some platforms have already shown that they have no interest in complying with local regulations. Telegram, for example, only rehearsed with respect to judicial decisions after it was blocked by the STF.

PRESENT LINK: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release five free hits of any link per day. Just click the blue F below.