SAO PAULO (AP) – Protesters against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro challenged police in the capital on Friday, a day after the last round of arrests of critics of the leader under a national security law from the US era. dictatorship.
Four protesters were arrested Thursday after calling Bolsonaro a “genocide” for his treatment of the coronavirus pandemic and showing a cartoon depicting the president as a Nazi. But on Friday, police silently watched a one-hour protest against Bolsonaro organized by about 40 people.
The national security law, which dates from 1983, near the end of the country’s military dictatorship, states that it is a crime to harm the heads of the three branches of government or expose them to danger. This vague definition has recently been used to arrest or investigate Bolsonaro’s critics.
Geography teacher Katia Garcia said she appeared before the president’s office on Friday because the arrests had inspired him.
“They were imprisoned because the‘ genocidal ’description fits our president very well,” Garcia said, wearing a face mask and a face shield. “It has contributed to the collapse of our health care system due to lack of vaccines. The police cannot silence us.”
There have been previous charges of breaking news 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. Courts have not confirmed any of the arrests so far, but lawyers are sounding alarms because tactics are becoming commonplace.
Both demonstrations in Brasilia called for the removal of Bolsonaro due to the alleged failures of his administration in the pandemic, which has caused nearly 290,000 deaths in Brazil. The country has reported nearly 3,000 deaths each day this week.
In several cases, the president has complained of being unfairly insulted, last Thursday night during a live Facebook broadcast.
“I am called a dictator. I want you to point out something I did in two years and two months that was autocratic, ”he said while complaining about a newspaper column that used the word genocide to describe it.
Brasilia police said Thursday that the four detained protesters violated the national security law “when they displayed a swastika associated with the symbol of the President of the Republic.” But Brazilian federal police, who decide whether cases filed by local police deserve to go ahead with crimes against national security, dismissed the case and released three of the four protesters. One was held with a pending order from a previous case.
Federal police have conducted more than 80 investigations under the security law during the first two years of Bolsonaro and more than ten 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 be aimed almost entirely at Bolsonaro’s critics, according to human rights organizations and activists.
A case last year involved a sociologist and a businessman who paid for two billboards that insulted Bolsonaro saying it was not worth a piece of gnawed fruit. This investigation was requested by the Minister of Justice, André Mendonça, who described it as a crime against the president’s reputation. He was fired in October.
On Friday night, unsuccessful presidential candidate Ciro Gomes said federal police are investigating him for telling the president “a thief” in a radio interview in November. The probe request was signed by Bolsonaro himself, Gomes said on his social media.
“I don’t particularly care about this act against me, but I think it’s serious that Bolsonaro is trying to intimidate opponents and opponents,” said Gomes, from the left.
On Monday, police invoked the national security law to force Felipe Neto, a popular youtuber, to testify after he referred to Bolsonaro as a “genocide” in one of his broadcasts. Federal police dismissed the case two days later amid a public outcry.
Neto, who was named by Time magazine last year as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, was also harmed in November on charges of corrupt minors. These charges were also dropped.
“From the beginning, I knew that this attempt at intimidation was not intended to scare me. It was to scare the Brazilian people, “Neto told 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 having criticized Bolsonaro and needing a lawyer.
O Globo said Friday in an editorial that the spirit of the national security law goes against Brazil’s constitution in promoting civil liberties.
“National security law should be repealed and replaced by a more modern tool that is able to reconcile the protection of the rule of law and respect for individual rights,” the newspaper said. “Among them is full and essential freedom of expression.”
___ Associated Press photojournalist Eraldo Peres in Brasilia contributed to this report.