PSOL wants to investigate evangelical churches at CPMI on January 8

After the summoning of right-wing politicians, the military and people linked to agribusiness, evangelicals are in the sights of the left in the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) that investigates the acts of January 8.

The PSOL deputies in the collegiate, Pastor Henrique Vieira (RJ) and Erika Hilton (SP), presented requests for the summoning of six evangelical protesters who were in Praça dos Três Poderes on January 8, supposedly brought by buses sponsored by churches.

Of these, five are already defendants in Inquérito 4,921, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which investigates who were the instigators and masterminds of acts of vandalism in the headquarters of the Three Powers.

“We will be able to distinguish people who have generous, loving and peaceful faith, from those who kidnap religion, spirituality and faith to legitimize projects of power, violence and destruction of democracy”, said Vieira, who is from the evangelical church Batista do Caminho.

The requests of the PSOL deputies are based on testimonies to the Federal Police of protesters from Alagoas, Pará and Mato Grosso who would have indicated to participate in tours organized by pastors in their hometowns. The denominations targeted are the Renovada Presbyterian Church (MT), the Baptist Church of Maceió (AL) and the Assembly of God of Xinguara (PA).

The president of the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) on January 8th, Deputy Arthur Maia (União Brasil -BA), conditioned the vote on these requests to the release of documents from the investigation into the acts of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), as understood with the reporting minister, Alexandre de Moraes.

The calls requested by PSOL are in line with the work plan of the rapporteur, senator Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA), approved in plenary and which prioritized the focus of the investigation on the so-called intellectual authors and financiers, within the thesis that there was planning and prior orientations, with a series of steps aimed at an alleged coup d’état.

For jurists such as Janaína Paschoal, professor and former parliamentarian, and Ezequiel Dias, member of the Religious Freedom Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association of the Federal District (OAB-DF), the fact that a church sends faithful to a demonstration, the peaceful principle, it is not a crime. They reject the thesis of criminalizing institutions through the individual actions of their members or patrons.

President of the Evangelical Front in Congress sees revenge of politicians against the community

In response to the PSOL initiative, Senator Carlos Viana (Podemos-MG), president of the Evangelical Front of Congress, pointed out that the numerous religious denominations of this social group are “apolitical and non-partisan”.

“I am not aware of any action by large or small churches and even by influential pastors in favor of the camps in Brasilia. There is nothing to hide, therefore the investigation must continue and clarify all the facts related to January 8. I regret that, as it is a matter of of people who present themselves as evangelicals, this type of attitude seems more like revenge or revenge from those who are distant from the community”, he said.

According to Claudio Caivano, a lawyer for 15 arrested in connection with the January 8 acts, efforts to criminalize churches only confirm “the government’s clear intention to dissuade.” He explains that, by trying to involve more other supposed actors in the acts of vandalism and in an alleged coup plot, the allied parliamentarians of the Planalto are only “creating distractions to divert the focus from other characters and facts, such as the possible omissions of the federal authorities from security”.

The defender noted, however, that the apparently “confused and unprepared” way in which the audience with the former director of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), Silvinei Vasques, was conducted last week ended up not bringing the results expected by the government supporters. Caivano believes that the government’s articulators at the CPMI “are already concerned about possible frustrations in the awaited audience with Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid”, a former assistant to former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

“The performance below what the government wanted in the commission is leading its leaders to look for alternatives. There is the prospect of prolonged attrition and, therefore, the government supporters are trying to contain the negative effects right now”, he evaluated.

Opposition wins in first week of hearings

The CPMI on January 8 concluded the first week of testimonies confirming the government’s decisive weight in the direction of its directions, but also registering the opposition’s conquests. General Marco Gonçalves Dias, former head of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) of the presidency, was finally added to the initial list of 35 witnesses through an agreement between party leaders after the name of the former minister of the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ( PT) had been excluded from the summons the week before, due to the votes of the ruling majority, causing strong negative repercussions.

On Tuesday (20), the former director of the Federal Highway Police (PRF), Silvinei Vasques, surprised in his testimony as a witness at the CPMI by resisting pressure from government parliamentarians and denying the thesis that he would have made it difficult to transport voters in the Northeast, showing data to the contrary.

He pointed out “injustice” against the corporation, denied any political interference in road operations during the election period and minimized its proximity to former president Jair Bolsonaro. During the interrogation, there were clashes between members of the collegiate and threats from the rapporteur Eliziane Gama to arrest Vasques.

On the second day of testimonies, on Thursday (22), members of the right managed to advance in the strategy of discrediting the connection proposed by the rapporteur between three violent episodes that occurred in Brasília after the 2022 elections, which she describes as “chronology of the coup” : the frustrated invasion of the Federal Police headquarters on December 12, the day of Lula’s diplomacy, the placing of a bomb next to a fuel truck near JK Airport on December 24 and, finally, the acts of January 8 .

Questioned by the opposition, agents of the Civil Police of the Federal District who prevented the attack on Christmas Eve discarded evidence of a connection between the crime and the attempted invasion of the PF, with the invasions of January 8, with former president Jair Bolsonaro and even same with the encampments in the Urban Military Sector.

Silent for most of the testimony, based on judicial guarantees, the person convicted of the failed attack, George Washington Oliveira Sousa, just ruled out being the perpetrator and denied any association between the three investigated episodes, as well as the camp.

The government’s base in the commission continued, in turn, investing in the thesis that points to Jair Bolsonaro as the mastermind of acts of vandalism, including Colonel Jean Lawand Júnior on the list of summons, whose dialogues with Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, assistant to orders from the former president, would indicate, according to the government supporters, an “orchestration” for an alleged “attempt at a coup d’état”.

The investigations surrounding the alleged fraud of Jair Bolsonaro’s vaccination card were also considered to be of interest to the commission’s government supporters. It was agreed that the CPMI will only hear deponents related to the pre-January 8th events until the beginning of the parliamentary recess, on July 12th. Cid will be heard both as a witness and investigated and Lawand already had his testimony scheduled for this Tuesday (27).