SAO PAULO (AP) – Protesters against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro defied police in the capital on Friday, a day after the latest round of arrests of the leader’s critics under a dictatorship’s national security law.
Four protesters were detained on Thursday after calling Bolsonaro ‘genocidal’ for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and after showing a cartoon depicting the president as a Nazi. But on Friday, police quietly watched a one-hour protest against Bolsonaro, organized by about 40 people.
The National Security Act, which dates back to 1983, towards the end of the country’s military dictatorship, states that it is a crime to harm the heads of the three government agencies or expose them to danger. That vague definition has recently been used to detain or investigate Bolsonaro critics.
Geography teacher Katia Garcia said she appeared before the president’s office on Friday because the arrests had inspired her.
“They were imprisoned because the description ‘genocidal’ fits our president well,” said Garcia wearing a face mask and a face shield. “He has contributed to the collapse of our health care system due to a lack of vaccines. The police cannot silence us. “
Previous charges have been filed against prominent critics of the president, including a newspaper columnist and a political cartoonist and a popular YouTube star, but the law is increasingly enforced against ordinary citizens. Courts have not upheld any of the arrests so far, but lawyers are alarmed that the tactic is becoming commonplace.
Both protests in Brasilia called for Bolsonaro’s impeachment over his government’s alleged shortcomings in the pandemic that caused nearly 290,000 deaths in Brazil. The country has reported nearly 3,000 deaths a day this week.
In several instances, the president has complained that he was unfairly defamed, most recently on Thursday night on a live Facebook broadcast.
‘They call me a dictator. I want you to point out one thing I did in two years and two months that was autocratic, ”he said, complaining about a newspaper column using the word genocidal to describe him.
Brasilia police said on Thursday that the four detained protesters were in violation of national security law “when they displayed a swastika associated with the symbol of the president of the republic.” But Brazil’s federal police force, which decides whether cases brought by the local police deserve to proceed with national security crimes, have dismissed the case and released three of the four protesters. One was arrested on the basis of an outstanding warrant from a previous case.
According to O Globo newspaper, federal police conducted more than 80 investigations under security law during the first two years of Bolsonaro, and more than 10 in the first 45 days of 2021. The annual average before the Conservative leader took office was 11.
Things seem to be focused almost entirely on Bolsonaro’s critics, human rights groups and activists say.
Last year, a case involved a sociologist and a businessman who paid for two billboards insulting Bolsonaro by saying he was unworthy of a gnawed piece of fruit. That investigation was requested by Justice Minister André Mendonça, who called it a crime against the president’s reputation. It was rejected in October.
On Friday night, failed presidential candidate Ciro Gomes said federal police are investigating him for calling the president “a thief” in a November radio interview. The request for the probe has been signed by Bolsonaro himself, Gomes said on his social media outlets.
“I don’t really care about this act against me, but I think it’s serious that Bolsonaro is trying to intimidate opponents and opponents,” said the left-wing Gomes.
On Monday, police appealed to national security law to force Felipe Neto, a popular YouTuber, to give testimony after calling Bolsonaro “ genocidal ” in one of his broadcasts. Federal police dismissed the case two days later amid public outcry.
Named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine last year, Neto also became the target of allegations of corrupt minors in November. Those charges were also dropped.
“I knew from the start that this attempt at intimidation was not intended to scare me. It was to scare the Brazilian people, ”Neto told The Associated Press by phone.
“I have the resources to defend myself, but most teachers, journalists and members of civil society don’t,” added Neto, who this week established a legal defense fund to help anyone faced with similar allegations for criticizing Bolsonaro and in need of a lawyer.
O Globo said in an editorial on Friday that the spirit of the national security law violates Brazil’s constitution in promoting civil liberties.
“The national security law must be repealed and replaced by a more modern instrument that can reconcile the protection of the rule of law and respect for individual rights,” the newspaper said. “This includes complete – and essential – freedom of expression.”
___ Photojournalist Eraldo Peres of the Associated Press in Brasilia contributed to this report.