Keeping the GSI (Institutional Security Office) under military command is like interrupting cancer chemotherapy: relapse is certain and can be fatal.

By Jeferson Miola, for 247

O The Minister of Defense and the military leadership are making no secret of this top priority. – not to mention a morbid obsession – with keeping the GSI under uniformed control.

Minister Múcio Monteiro, who advocates for the interests of the military within the government instead of coordinating the Armed Forces based on presidential directives and civilian authority, declared that the GSI (Institutional Security Office) "can even change its name, another acronym; but the GSI will not be abolished!"

As for the military leadership, through transmissions in off In their statements to the press, they convey the message that they "even accept" the possibility of the GSI structure being "expanded with civilians," but they argue that "the agency should be commanded by a four-star general in the reserves, to ensure that the head has a higher rank than his subordinates."Folha, April 25, 2023].

This position clearly reveals the military's perception that, for them, the GSI is essentially a military installation nestled in the heart of civilian power., where the hierarchy criterion must be observed.

Maintaining this military power structure is especially functional for partisan and conspiratorial military leaderships, such as those in Brazil, but it is detrimental to democracy.

The invasion and subsequent vandalism of the Palácio do Planalto during the fascist-military coup attempt of January 8th proves the functionality of the GSI, controlled by the military, in attacks against democracy and the rule of law.

The perpetrators of those criminal attacks had enormous ease in invading and devastating the government headquarters precisely because of... complicity of the GSI military officers appointed by the far-right general Augusto.

If the GSI (Institutional Security Office) were not an agency dominated by conspiring officers and if it rigorously and professionally fulfilled its duties, employing appropriate force to contain criminals, the invasion of the Planalto Palace would have been highly improbable, and the criminals would have been apprehended and arrested.

Recent and historical evidence regarding the conduct of the military demonstrates that they have absolutely no respect for or submission to democracy and the rule of law, because they aspire to their own project of power.

The military's obsession with maintaining the GSI (Institutional Security Office) does not stem from their democratic and professional commitment, but from a strategy of maintaining a war trench within civilian institutions, from where they can act to erode and destroy democracy itself from within, as we witnessed on January 8th.

The disbanding of the GSI is not immune to strong pressures and tensions exerted by the military and the fascist far-right.

It is difficult to foresee the level of tension they may create and even the destabilization they may promote, but the demoralizing failure of the attempted coup on January 8th created the A more favorable political climate for the government to abolish the GSI..

The government has already begun a process of weakening the GSI (Institutional Security Office) by assigning responsibility for presidential security to the Federal Police during the transition period and, after January 8th, by transferring ABIN (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) to the Civil House.

The GSI (Institutional Security Office) has completely lost institutional relevance from the point of view of civil and democratic institutions. Its residual responsibilities, such as the military security of official residences and palaces, could naturally be absorbed by a Military House, of a purely technical-operational nature.

Maintaining the GSI (Institutional Security Office), especially one commanded by military officers, is equivalent to interrupting chemotherapy in cancer treatment: a recurrence of the disease is certain, and it could be fatal for an organism called democracy.

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