01/08/2024 – 18:59
With the crisis arising from the attack on the buildings of the Three Powers, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) considered signing a Law and Order Guarantee (GLO) decree to contain the situation, but was advised against lowering the standard for the first time. -Lady Rosângela da Silva, Janja. “That’s all they want,” said the first lady, as reported by the president in the documentary “8/1 – A Democracia Resiste”, produced by GloboNews.
“It was Janja who invalidated it: 'Don't accept GLO, because GLO is all they want. It's taking over the government'. If I give them authority, I had handed over the power to them”, said Lula in the production, released this Sunday, 7.
Given Janja's advice, the president opted for another way to stop the crisis in Brasília: federal intervention, provided for in Article 34 of the Constitution. The number 2 of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, executive secretary Ricardo Cappelli, was appointed intervenor in the public security area in the Federal District and led the work with the DF Military Police to overcome the crisis. “I made the decision, I told Flávio Dino: 'Let's do what we have to do, there's no GLO'”, stated the president.
The use of the Law and Order Guarantee was called for by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) who did not accept the result of the 2022 elections. In the weeks leading up to the January 8 attacks, the term had become a word of order in the coup camps. Understand, below, what GLO is, how the device could have been activated on January 8, 2023 and why Janja advised the president against the alternative.
What is GLO?
The Law and Order Guarantee (GLO) is an exceptional device for controlling a public security crisis. While a GLO is in force, Army authorities begin to exercise police powers, which gives permission to search people, arrest people and carry out patrols. The rule must be activated at the initiative of the Presidency of the Republic and, at the time of the call, the area and period in which the device will be valid must be specified. This is a one-off intervention with a deadline.
According to Carlos Ari Sundfeld, law professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), the device is provided by law to be used to make up for the lack of agents in traditional security forces. “On that day, in Brasília, the Military Police should have prevented what happened. A problem of PM inefficiency then arose. And the GLO is the instrument provided for by the Constitution for a crisis situation in which the PM is unable to cope or the PM is the cause of the crisis”, explained the professor.
Who has already contacted GLO?
All presidents since 1992 have activated the Law of Order Guarantee to contain a public security crisis, including Lula. Survey of Estadão revealed that, in the last 30 years, Brazil had an average of five GLOs per year – there were 146 situations of this kind. The record holder is Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB), who signed 46 GLO decrees in the eight years he governed the country. Lula is close behind, with 41 interventions of this kind.
The survey of Estadão reveals that the use of GLOs has taken on different purposes over the last few decades. The reasons for the Law and Order Guarantee decree range from urban violence, military police strikes and even electoral processes.
Lula is responsible for the last time a GLO was triggered. In November 2023, the president signed a decree authorizing the employment of the Army, Navy and Air Force in ports and airports in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The measure is in force until May 2024. He signed the GLO four days after saying that, as long as he occupied the Palácio do Planalto, “there would be no GLO”.
Despite the high rate of GLOs downloaded by the PT member during his administration, the PT recently tried to issue a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) to end the device. Named by its authors “PEC anti-coup”, the proposal did not reach consensus even within the Lula government and ended up not being taken forward.
Could GLO have been activated on January 8th?
For Carlos Sundfeld, it is “natural” that the activation of the GLO was considered as a reaction to the coup acts, as the device is provided for by law for situations in which control of a given situation has escaped local authorities, such as the District Military Police. Federal during the 8th of January. “It was natural that in that situation the activation of the Armed Forces was considered, as one of the hypotheses, because, in theory, they are under the command of the federal government”, stated the professor.
Other factors, however, were evaluated so that Lula preferred federal intervention, provided for in Article 34 of the Constitution, instead of the GLO. “The risk that the President of the Republic assessed was that, by activating the Armed Forces, he would place the military in a leading role, which would not be convenient due to the characteristics of this political crisis”, said the FGV professor.
Why didn't Janja want GLO?
As shown in the documentary produced by GloboNews, Lula gives Janja the advice not to activate GLO, the “natural” path, in response to January 8th. According to Edinho Silva (PT), mayor of Araraquara – the city where the couple was on January 8th – Janja said: “No GLO, it’s handing it over to the military”.
For Professor Carlos Sundfeld, in addition to not wanting to give the military a leading role, the first lady possibly assessed what message Lula would give to the protesters when he decreed the Guarantee of Law and Order. In the months preceding the coup acts, GLO had become a slogan in camps set up at Army bases across the country. The allegation was that a decree of this nature was necessary in the face of alleged fraud – never proven – in the electoral system .
“The wife of the President of the Republic could be warning him: 'Don't make a political gesture that looks like a victory for the people who are rioting in the street,” said Sundfeld.
Is GLO the same thing as military intervention?
No. GLO, federal intervention and military intervention are three different concepts and are not related to each other. The GLO, as explained, is provided for by Article 142 of the Federal Constitution. Furthermore, the Guarantee of Law and Order is regulated by Complementary Law No. 97/1999 and Decree No. 3,897/2001.
Carlos Ari Sundfeld emphasizes that none of these norms confers “moderating power” on the Armed Forces. “This is completely false. No Constitution in the world, including the Brazilian one, gives the Armed Forces the initiative to intervene in the political order.”
By military intervention, we mean a rupture in the Democratic Rule of Law led by an Army command.
Federal intervention, on the other hand, is a device provided for in the Federal Constitution of Brazil through Article 34. It was the route chosen by President Lula to deal with the crisis of January 8, with the appointment of intervenor Ricardo Cappelli.
Like the GLO, the intervention is an instrument used exceptionally for public security crises, but it safeguards crucial differences in relation to the Law of Order Guarantee. It depends, for example, on approval from the National Congress; Furthermore, the command of the security forces of the place in which the intervention is taking place is under the management of the intervener, and not th
e Armed Forces.
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