PT wants to remove GLO from the Armed Forces – 03/12/2023 – Power

Rapporteur of the National Constituent Assembly, former deputy Bernardo Cabral (PMDB-AM) cited the French philosopher Montesquieu (1689-1755) to comply with the main demand of the then Minister of the Army, General Leônidas Pires Gonçalves, in September 1987.

With the discussions in Congress about the country’s new Constitution, the general appointed eight soldiers to work as parliamentary advisors. One of its main objectives was to avoid the withdrawal, in the new constitutional text, of the attribution of the Armed Forces as guarantors of law and order.

“[O texto] consecrates the destination of the Armed Forces […] with the difference that the guarantee of law and order, when necessary, may be raised on the initiative of any of the three constitutional Powers”, wrote Cabral, following the suggestion of the then constituent Fernando Henrique Cardoso (then in the PMDB) to include the assignment of Forces.

For the rapporteur, the possibility of any Power calling on the Armed Forces to guarantee order respected the “traditional tripartition of which Montesquieu speaks”.

The idea of ​​the text was to maintain the power of the military to act in internal security actions when the police are insufficient for the task. There was no consensus on the issue, which became a battle in the Constituent Assembly.

“At the time, the issue that had the most visibility was taking the Armed Forces out of public security. Not much visibility was given to this ‘moderating role’, which was created later. We questioned what order was, what law was , because there was a certain subjectivity to it,” he told Sheet former deputy and constituent José Genoino (PT), main articulator against the text of article 142.

“It was the militarization of the country, of public security and of the State”, he adds.

The Constituent Assembly’s reports were changed three times in plenary until article 142 of the Federal Constitution was confirmed, which describes the duties of the Armed Forces —among them, that of “destining to guarantee the constitutional Powers and, on the initiative of any of them, the law and order”.

The survey was carried out by Sheet based on the publication “The Genesis of the Text of the 1988 Constitution”, by João Alberto Lima, Edilenice Passos and João Rafael Nicola.

The debate that existed in redemocratization was once again a topic in the National Congress in 2023.

Parliamentarians from the base of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government argue that the Armed Forces should not participate in public security actions — and the path, therefore, would be to review the constitutional role of the military.

Furthermore, Article 142 of the Constitution began to be invoked by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) as the alleged legal basis for military intervention in the country —although he does not allow this hypothesis.

Federal deputy Carlos Zarattini (PT-SP) decided to take the lead in efforts against the current wording of article 142. He wrote a PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) that seeks to remove the possibility for the Armed Forces to participate in GLO operations ( Guarantee of Law and Order).

“The GLO is used by the military to carry out an internal intervention. Around 40% of them were used to fight crime, and the Armed Forces are not prepared for that”, evaluates Zarattini.

For him, public security actions should be carried out by the National Force in cases where the military police are insufficient.

“In my view, this [foi uma] imposition of the military in the Brazilian Constitution, the [ex-ministro do Exército] Leonidas”, complete.

Politicians and researchers heard by the Sheet recall that, in the discussion of the Constituent Assembly, the relationship between Congress and the Armed Forces was contaminated by the military dictatorship.

They say that the Forces had a structure set up in the Assembly: parliamentary advisors in uniform worked in conversations with constituents and passed on information to General Leônidas.

As a legacy from that time, the Ministry of Defense still invests heavily in parliamentary advisory services —the department is one of the few on the Esplanada that maintains a fixed room in Congress.

The military uses a 27 m² room on the 27th floor of the Senate tower. Six advisors without uniform usually circulate through the offices of deputies and senators to ask for amendments to Defense projects and feel the climate for possible defeats in the Houses.

For diplomat Rubens Barbosa, former ambassador and current director of the Center for Defense and National Security, the discussion on reforming the Armed Forces is important not for its content, but for what the legislative framework for the military represents.

“It’s a symbolic thing […], an opportunity to enforce civilian control. But this cannot be partisan, it has to be an action by Congress, by civil society, not by the PT”, he said.

Former Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo classifies a PT offensive to change the role of the Armed Forces in the Constitution as “revanchism”.

“The Armed Forces used the GLO more than 160 times, always on the initiative of the Powers — never by our will”, he says. “When the police in Ceará or Bahia go on strike, whoever goes on strike [em ação]? It’s us. It’s revanchism, bullshit to mess with it.”

Sources at the top of the Army told the Sheet, subject to the fact that the barracks does not agree with the end of the Law and Order Guarantee operations. They see the PEC as an isolated action by the PT, without much support in Congress.

Even so, the commander of the Army, general Tomás Paiva, should meet with deputy Zarattini next week to discuss the proposal.

In the Army, generals say there is a willingness to discuss changes in the rules on military personnel assuming civilian positions. One proposal, studied in conjunction with the Ministry of Defense, is to send the military who decides to assume a role in other Powers straight to reserve.

By current rules, the military can spend two years in a position of political appointment before leaving active duty.

Professor Adriana Marques, from UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), dubbed the proposal under development at the Ministry of Defense as “PEC light”.

“No institution self-reforms of its own free will. We cannot have many expectations of a self-reform proposal, they are proposing something that is obvious, that active duty military personnel should not participate in government positions.”