MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula's intervention decree OK'd by Congress

Lula also signed into law an amendment increasing penalties for racist remarks

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Wednesday welcomed Lower House Speaker Arthur Lira (PP) and Senate Acting Speaker Veneziano Vital do Rego (MDB) at the Planalto Palace for the symbolic delivery of Sunday's presidential decree ordering the federal intervention of the security areas in the Federal District, which has been ratified by Congress earlier this week.

At the meeting, Lula thanked the lawmakers for the prompt approval of the measure and insisted that the terrorist acts were the action of a group that will eventually be held accountable.

“I think that what happened here, I wouldn't like to think of a coup, I'd even like to think of something smaller, who knows maybe a group of crazy people who still don't understand that the election is over; who still don't want to accept that the electronic ballot box is possibly the most perfect electoral model that we have in all the countries of the world,” Lula said.

It “was an act of vandalism too, an act of bandits because the steel cables were screwed. It means that purposely someone cut the cables of the two big towers. This had already happened at the end of the year in Rondônia, at Eletronorte, which had been knocked down,” he added.

“What you are doing with this decree is saying that we have to punish. Whoever doesn't want to respect the law, we have to punish those who don't want to respect the democratic order that was so difficult to achieve since the Constitution of 1988,” he went on.

“Any gesture that goes against Brazilian democracy will be punished within the limits of what the law allows to be punished. Everyone, everyone will have the right to defend themselves, everyone will have the right to proof of innocence, but everyone will be punished,” he insisted while ratifying that his decree was necessary to combat the acts of vandalism and offense to the Constitution.

“The act of delivery of the Legislative Decree Project fulfills the democratic, legal and constitutional rite that for sure will take its course with dialogue and firmness in defense of democracy,” said Lira.

For Vital do Rego, the decree shows the unity of the country in the fight against terrorist acts. “It shows the solidarity of the 27 units that brought support and said they were outraged with the acts perpetrated by those who imagined shaking our institutional pillars,” he said.

“To fascism and terror, only one position fits in history: the position of combat, of confrontation,” Senator Randolfe Rodrigues of Lula's allegiance said. “Each one of the terrorists, wherever they are, whether or not they wear a parliamentary brooch, whether or not they wear a toga, whether or not they wear a uniform, wherever they are, whoever they are, I am sure that those democrats of the country led by President Lula will react to defend the nation under attack and to defend democracy,” he also pointed out.

Meanwhile, President Lula signed into law an amendment to the penal code equating racial slurs to racism, with prison sentences increased to up to 5 years. The sanctioning ceremony took place simultaneously with the swearing-in of Sonia Guajajara as Minister of Indigenous Peoples and Anielle Franco as Minister of Racial Equality.

Racial libel is now punishable by imprisonment from 2 to 5 years, an increase from the previous 1 to 3 years. The penalty will be doubled if the crime is committed by two or more people. There will also be an increase in the penalty if the crime of racial slurs is committed at sporting or cultural events and for humorous purposes.

The new legislation is in line with the understanding of the Federal Supreme Court that, in October of last year, equated racial insult to racism and, therefore, made insult, as well as racism, a crime to which no statute of limitations may apply.

Racial slurs are offenses against someone, an individual, because of race, color, ethnicity, or origin. And racism is when discrimination affects an entire community by, for example, preventing a black person from taking on a job or entering an establishment because of the color of their skin.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)