New police law: PT and Bolsonarism defend ‘inheritance’ from the military regime
We publish this unofficial translation of an article of the Brazilian newspaper AND.
A law that aims to legally regulate the performance of the Military Police (PMs) throughout Brazil is about to be approved with support from both the PL (of Jair Bolsonaro) and the PT (of Luiz Inácio). The project, which has been criticized for representing a continuation of the repressive structures inherited from the fascist military regime, will lead to increased repression in the countryside, privilege exclusive access to public services to military police (such as health, aid, medical assistance, etc.) and will authorize those investigated for involvement in massacres against the people to compete for promotions.
On July 11th, the text of the National Organic Law of the Military Police and the Military Fire Department (PL 4363/2001), as it is officially called, was proposed as necessary in 2020 by the Bolsonarist extreme right present in Congress, and firmly embraced by Bolsonaro. Today, the text was approved in the Federal Senate and will pass through the Constitution and Justice Commission, where it has the support of the leader of the PT in the Senate, Fabiano Contarato. The text had already been approved at the end of 2022 in the Chamber of Deputies (where Captain Augusto, from PL/SP was the rapporteur).
The Ministry of Justice and Public Security stated that Luiz Inácio gave the “green light” for the approval of the new law, according to Folha’s press monopoly. It is, therefore, a consensus between the extreme right and opportunism; a consensus that it is necessary to maintain the legacy of the fascist military regime and to improve it.
Repression in the countryside and corporatism
The new law aims to define general rules for PMs and Firefighters around topics such as organization of forces, human resources, material and guarantees and rights. Currently, what fulfills this role is a law of the fascist military regime (from 1969) and the 1988 Constitution already provided for a replacement in the form of a new law – which came late and, fundamentally, reinforces even more the character of forces of repression against the people in a continuity and improvement of what was in force since the military regime.
There are three main points of the law:
1) The law foresees that the PMs will start to act alongside other agencies whose task is “environmental policing” (Ibama, ICMBio and Funai), increasing the repression against the peasant masses in struggle for land. It also has a forecast that PMs in all states and federal entities will receive funding from the Amazon Fund.
2) Authorization for investigated persons to compete for career promotions. This means that police officers indicted in investigations or defendants in judicial or administrative proceedings will be able to be promoted (as long as they have not been convicted and the process is ongoing). This applies to police officers who are part of “death squads” or who are involved in massacres in favelas or crimes against the people – that is, who fulfill their “service”.
3) Like the military of the reactionary Armed Forces, a series of public benefits will benefit the military police. The list follows: assistance for dangerous and unhealthy conditions; life and accident insurance; medical, psychological and dental care; workload limit and remuneration review to be defined by the states. With specific public services set for them, military police officers across the country will have a life even more separate from that of the Brazilian people (who suffer from a lack of doctors or nurses in precarious hospitals across the country).
There are also other important points, such as the creation of new ranks to compare to the positions in the reactionary Armed Forces, the possibility of returning to active duty after running for or holding public office, a minimum percentage of 20% of vacancies for women in public tenders for police officers and firefighters, and others.
