Action signed by PSB, PV, Solidariedade, PCdoB, Psol and Rede cites Bolsonaro’s statements about military control
Opposition parties have appealed to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to prevent the Armed Forces or the federal government from summoning military police – an attribution that falls to the States.
The action (intact – 470 KB) was signed by PSB, PV, Solidariedade, PCdoB, Psol and Rede. The process is under the rapporteurship of the STF minister Dias Toffoli.
According to the captions, the goal is “rule out any and all legal interpretations” what “seeks to substantiate, in an absolutely unreasonable way, the possibility of direct ‘convocation’ of the police forces of the States of the Federation to act under command and subordination to the Federal Government or the Armed Forces of the Brazilian State for the purpose of alleged maintenance or containment of ‘public order ‘”.
The decrees cited in the lawsuit –Decree 88.540/1983 Decree-Law 667/1969– are from the period of the military dictatorship. They foresee the possibility of mobilizing the state police by the federal government and, also, the subordination and control of the Military Police by the Ministry of the Army.
According to the authors, the 1988 Constitution makes it clear that the PMs are subordinate to state governors.
“Despite the clarity of the constitutional text, isolated groups of police officers and even Federal Government authorities have been seeking to reinforce a remarkably coupist and unconstitutional discourse in the sense that the Armed Forces could override the States of the Federation in command of the military police.”, wrote the parties.
According to the captions, “the inconceivable interpretation has been taken up, for example, by the National Association of State Military of Brazil (AMEBRASIL)”. They quoted the association’s note from August 2021, “on the eve of the turbulent September 7th holiday” last year.
At the time, the association declared that, in the event of “institutional rupture“, at “Military police will be automatically summoned by the federal land force to act in this context as an auxiliary force and reserve of the Army”.
The parties also mentioned that the president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) “caused surprise and amazement by sharing messages with the content of the note published by ABRAGEM, under the title ‘Military Police will follow the Army in case of institutional rupture’”.
“The pretension of control of the Armed Forces by the President of the Republic takes on an air of great temerity when related to the question object of this argument.”, reads the document.
“Faced with such temerity and being supported by police groups and even by a high federal authority, it becomes necessary and urgent for this Supreme Court to grant a precautionary measure..”
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