Who has a pet criminal?

Seconds after President Lula vetoed the so-called "Dosimetry Bill," the Brazilian far-right and its collaborators immediately began spreading the narrative that the government is not seeking "institutional peace," but rather "permanent confrontation." This is a twisted and profoundly hypocritical argument. What is at stake is not pacification, but the attempt to downplay very serious crimes committed against the Democratic Rule of Law. Who really has pet criminals???

The aforementioned bill provided for reduced sentences for those involved in the attempted coup d'état of January 8, 2023. It is crucial to state clearly that amnesty can never be confused with crimes such as the violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, attempted coup d'état, armed criminal association, aggravated damage and deterioration of public property with the aim of overthrowing the legitimately elected government and democratic institutions. These are not common crimes, but direct attacks on the constitutional order. It has been proven that there was even an attempt to assassinate Lula, Alckmin, and Minister Alexandre de Moraes. 

Lula's veto, far from representing a confrontational gesture, was an act of institutional responsibility. Defending the Constitution, due process, and the criminal accountability of coup plotters is not fomenting conflict, but fulfilling the role that democracy demands of its rulers. The true path to instability would be exactly the opposite, that is, giving in to the political blackmail of those who tried to destroy the democratic regime and now seek to escape the consequences of their actions.

It is revealing, to say the least, that the Brazilian right speaks of "institutional peace" when its recent actions are marked by a systematic escalation of hatred, intolerance, and delegitimization of institutions. These have been years of attacks on the Supreme Federal Court, open campaigns for military intervention, encouragement of institutional disobedience, dissemination of conspiracy theories, and mass disinformation against the electoral system. The coup-mongering discourse did not spontaneously emerge in January 2023. It was cultivated daily by political leaders, influencers, and media outlets aligned with the far-right.

And as if that weren't enough, this same far-right explicitly demonstrates that it has learned absolutely nothing from January 8th. Open celebrations of the United States' invasion of Venezuela circulate freely on its networks and among its leaders, and even more seriously, there are delirious expressions of support for Donald Trump to militarily intervene in Brazil. This is a colonial, anti-national mentality that openly betrays Brazilian sovereignty. How can one speak of institutional pacification in the face of a political gang that celebrates imperialist aggression and dreams of foreign occupation of its own country?

Therefore, there is a complete inversion of reality. Those who promote permanent confrontation are precisely the far-right, which to this day rejects the results of the elections and bets on chaos as a political strategy. The veto of the Dosage Bill does not break the institutional peace but, on the contrary, aims to prevent democracy from being blackmailed by those who tried to destroy it and who continue to conspire against it.

There is no possible reconciliation when it comes to crimes against the democratic order. History shows that pacts of impunity do not pacify societies, but only postpone conflicts and strengthen authoritarian forces. This has been the case at various points in Brazilian and Latin American history, always with tragic results. Democracy cannot be held hostage by a false idea of ​​"harmony" built on forced forgetting and the absence of justice.

Finally, it must be stated clearly that the country will only be truly pacified when the far-right is definitively held accountable and condemned for all its crimes, which go far beyond the coup attempts of January 2023. We are also talking about the criminal management of the pandemic, the encouragement of arming the population, environmental destruction, the systematic attack on indigenous peoples, the deliberate sabotage of public policies, and the conscious erosion of democratic culture.

Institutional peace is not synonymous with impunity. Institutional peace is built on sovereignty, truth, justice, and respect for the Constitution. In this sense, the veto of the Sentencing Bill was not a confrontational gesture, but a necessary step to affirm that, in Brazil, democracy will not be negotiated with those who hate it, sabotage it, and wish for its destruction.