Protesters against Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, challenged the police in the capital after the last round of arrests of critics of the leader under a national security law at the time of the dictatorship.
Four protesters were detained in Brasília on Thursday after calling Bolsonaro “genocidal” for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and displaying a cartoon that portrays the president as a Nazi. But on Friday, the police silently watched an hour-long protest against Bolsonaro in the capital staged by about 40 people.
The national security law, which dates from 1983, close to the end of the military dictatorship in the country, states that it is a crime to hurt the heads of the three branches of government or expose them to danger. This vague definition was recently used to detain or investigate Bolsonaro’s critics.
Katia Garcia, a geography professor, said she appeared in front of the president’s office on Friday because the arrests inspired her.
“They were arrested because the ‘genocidal’ description suits our president very well,” said Garcia, wearing a mask and face shield. “It has contributed to the collapse of our health system, due to the lack of vaccines. The police cannot silence us. “
There have been previous accusations by journalists against prominent critics of the president, including a newspaper columnist, a political cartoonist and a popular YouTube star, but the law is increasingly being used against ordinary citizens. The courts have not sustained any of the arrests so far, but lawyers are expressing alarm that the tactic is becoming commonplace.
Both demonstrations in Brasilia called for Bolsonaro’s impeachment due to his government’s alleged failures in the pandemic, which caused nearly 290,000 deaths in Brazil. The country recorded nearly 3,000 deaths a day this week.
On several occasions, the president has complained that he is being unjustly defamed, most recently on Thursday night, during a live broadcast from Facebook.
“They call me a dictator. I want you to point to something I did in two years and two months that was autocratic, ”he said when he complained about a newspaper column that used the word genocide to describe him.
Brasília police said on Thursday that the four detained protesters violated national security law “by showing a swastika associated with the symbol of the President of the Republic”. But Brazil’s federal police force, which decides whether the cases presented by the local police deserve to go ahead with national security crimes, tried the case and released three of the four protesters. One was arrested on a warrant pending in a previous case.
However, the Federal Police conducted more than 80 investigations under the security law during Bolsonaro’s first two years, and more than 10 in the first 45 days of 2021, according to the newspaper O Globo. The annual average before the conservative leader took office was 11.
The cases appear to target Bolsonaro’s critics almost entirely, say human rights organizations and activists.
One case last year involved a sociologist and a businessman who paid for two billboards that insulted Bolsonaro by saying he was not worth a piece of gnawed fruit. The investigation was requested by the Minister of Justice, André Mendonça, who considered it a crime against the reputation of the President. He was fired in October.
On Monday, the police invoked the law to force Felipe Neto, a popular YouTuber, to testify after referring to Bolsonaro as “genocidal” in one of his broadcasts. The Federal Police closed the case two days later, amid public protests.
Neto, who was named by Time magazine last year as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, was also the target in November of allegations of corruption by minors. These charges have also been dropped.
“From the beginning, I knew that this attempt at intimidation was not meant to scare me. It was to scare the Brazilian people, ”Neto said by telephone to the Associated Press.
“I have the means to defend myself, but most teachers, journalists and members of civil society do not,” added Neto, who this week set up a legal defense fund to help anyone facing similar charges for criticizing Bolsonaro and who needs a lawyer.
O Globo said in an editorial on Friday that the spirit of the national security law goes against Brazil’s constitution in promoting civil liberties.
“The national security law must be repealed and replaced with a more modern tool that is able to reconcile the protection of the rule of law and respect for individual rights,” said the newspaper. “Among them is full – and essential – freedom of expression.”