The military police inquiry opened to investigate the military troops that should have protected the Planalto Palace in the face of the attacks on 8 January informs that the troops have no responsibility for the incident. The military’s understanding of the incident was not well regarded by the government and members of the security forces appointed by President Lula, who responded to the result with critics and promises of new investigations on the troops role in the event. The development of the facts related to the attack on the Three Powers Plaza is a reflex of the unstable and misaligned relationship between the current civilian central power and the Armed Forces.
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The Inquiry
While the troops were exempted from responsibility by the inquiry, the military informed having found “indications of responsibility” of the Secretariat for Security and Presidential Coordination, which is part of the portfolio of the GSI (Institutional Security Office).
The investigation concluded that, if there had been “adequate” planning at the beginning of Lula’s government, it would have been possible to have avoided the invasion of the palace or minimized the damage.
Nonetheless, according to media sources that reported the fact, the investigation indicates the responsibility of the GSI secretariat in a generic way, without mentioning the names of those responsible. The head of the secretariat was Army General Carlos Feitosa Rodrigues, who came to office in 2021, during the management of General Augusto Heleno, appointed by former President Bolsonaro. On top of that, Feitosa was not even heard during the investigation.
Investigation by the Common Justice
The military police inquiry is a pre-procedural investigation carried out by the military themselves to assess whether there are signs of a military crime and who might be responsible. The document was sent to Federal Supreme Court (STF) Minister Alexandre de Moraes. In February, he decided that the military involved in the 8 January incident will be prosecuted and judged by the court itself.
The minister also ordered the Federal Police to open an inquiry to investigate the military of the Armed Forces and the Military Police of the Federal District. The PF, therefore, may come to a different conclusion from that pointed out in the military inquiry.
Response by the Federal Police Director
On Monday (31/08), Federal Police General Director Andrei Rodrigues said that other actions will be carried out against those involved in the January 8 coup attacks. At an event in São Paulo, he also criticized the Army for its actions in front of camps set in front of military bases across the country – including in front of the Army Headquarters in Brasília, from where protesters depart on the 8 January to carry out the attack – to demand a military coup d’état against Lula.
According to Andrei, the PF wanted to remove the camps set up after the 2022 election campaign twice, but the Army did not allow it. He also stated that there was “complacency on the part of various entities and public bodies that maintain those camps”.
According to Andrei, the coup act “should have been avoided back in December”, when, he says, the corporation tried to remove the camp in front of the Army HQ in Brasília and ended up prevented by the military.
PF Investigations
Investigations by the Federal Police should point to the partial participation of the military in the attacks on the three Powers on 8 January. The result of the investigations will oppose the outcome of the investigation carried out by the Army itself on the performance of the soldiers who should have protected the Planalto Palace.
The PF investigations so far, according to investigators, show the actions of members of the Armed Forces not only in the events of the 8th itself, but also in the omission in relation to the camp set up in front of the Army headquarters after the elections.
Restricting the Powers of the Military
The experiences that the government had in the first months of this new mandate led it to prepare an amendment to the legislation on the use of the Armed Forces during security and public order crises or institutional instability. The proposal eliminates the current model of operations guaranteeing law and order.
Although in recent years the use of so-called GLOs has, in most cases, sought to remedy public security problems, the 8 January attacks and the politically biased distortion of the constitutional article that deals with the attributions of the Armed Forces in these operations led to the Executive seeking a policy response. In practice, a way of trying to limit the power of the military in domestic crises of all kinds.
According to the proposal conceived by Justice and Public Security Minister Flávio Dino, in partnership with the head of Defense, José Múcio, there would be no changes in article 142 of the Constitution, which deals with the competences of the Armed Forces, but in the Complementary Law that regulates it (nº 97, from 1999). The intention is to create in the text the possibility for the Armed Forces to eventually cooperate in security and public order crises without the need for the enactment of GLOs.
