Discussing the role of the military in democracy is, in fact, urgent.

Article 142 of the Constitution has been interpreted twice by Complementary Law, once by the FHC government and again two years ago by a unanimous decision of the Supreme Federal Court. All restrictive initiatives establish the "legal chain" of its use. A demand from the local government – ​​a federated state – to the Ministry of Justice, which then submits an opinion to the President of the Republic that (a) notifies the National Congress and, only then, designates the type of provision, scope, and attribution of the GLO Operation, as well as its command. 

Two other procedural methods arise from the impossibility or incapacity of the President, in which case the initiative falls to the President of the National Congress or the Supreme Federal Court. This always involves a special mission and a previously stipulated deadline. What happened regarding Article 142 was an unconstitutional interpretation of the Constitution, of the same nature as the one that states that "the Supreme Federal Court invades or limits the prerogatives of the Executive Branch." 

This is a deliberately erroneous interpretation of the Constitution. Under no circumstances can a military commander, or the Minister of Defense, invoke Article 142. It would simply be a crime, a "coup d'état," as stipulated in the Penal Code, replacing the National Security Law, with penalties ranging from 12 to 30 years in prison.

We discussed this in depth when I was at the Ministry of Defense in Brasília, with the help of Genoino and FHC, both original members of the drafting committee for Article 142. We must remember that several Governors, including those from the PT (Workers' Party), have already requested the use of GLO (Guarantee of Law and Order) via Article 142. I believe the discussion should include the creation and legal support of a "Third Type force," neither police nor Armed Forces, as exists in France, Italy, and the United States, for emergency situations, definitively removing the Armed Forces from any intra-state police action and, fundamentally, when this exceptionally occurs, their status should be that of a supplementary force to the civilian police power, especially for guarding and intelligence, freeing up the police and Third Type force to confront or conflict with crime. 

Similarly, the "General Inspectorate" power of the Armed Forces over state police forces, especially military police, should be revoked, guaranteeing the state chain of command and respecting federalism – this is the fundamental step in the "demilitarization" of the police. Finally, military courts should have their functions restricted, and "military crime" should disappear as a specific and deviant institution of Brazilian justice.

Ultimately, nothing will function as a stable democracy in Brazil as long as education in military schools and academies is not democratically open and equivalent to the rules of General Education in Brazil. Among the measures to prevent the maintenance of "factories" of authoritarianism, we must abolish the PTTC - "fixed-term task provision," which has become "permanent time," whereby reserve officers return to schools and academies, with an additional two-thirds of their salary, as teachers and instructors, despite having no specific training for this, and act in continuity with the typically Brazilian authoritarian military culture.

The historical denialism of hundreds of young officers stems from early exposure to such "guardians of tradition" paid for by Democracy itself. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the matter. I suggest we schedule an internal group seminar on the topic "Armed Forces for Democracy".