Temer lost in the chaos

What are the chances of an opaque president, advised by a truculent and unprepared Minister of Justice, solving the problem of massacres in Brazilian prisons?

   Recently, Folha de S. Paulo published an editorial stating that Alexandre de Moraes was lost in the chaos. They were right, but they failed to mention that, even more than him, it is Temer who is lost in the chaos.

   From the beginning of the carnage, what we saw and heard was a festival of insanities to explain the bloodbaths that insist on repeating themselves.

   "Factional war."

   "A horrific accident."

   "There were no saints there."

   "Bangu, you have to do better."

   "We need a massacre every week."

   "When one prisoner wants to kill another, there's no way to stop it."   

   No “authority” was able to go beyond wrong diagnoses and palliative, short-sighted solutions. “Send in the National Force.” “Send the leaders to other prisons.”

   Not even the most serene of authorities, Minister Carmen Lúcia, was able to go beyond ordering a recount of how many prisoners there are in the country and organizing a campaign to release those who were never even convicted or who had already served their sentences.

   Having absolutely no idea what to do, Temer had the brilliant idea of ​​gathering all the "authorities" to discuss the issue.

   No one has been able to understand and tell Brazilians that the origin of the massacres in prisons and favelas throughout Brazil is the same as in Chicago in the 20s: Prohibition.

   The city was invaded by gangs (called "factions" in Brazil) that fought over the sale of whiskey, which was suddenly forced underground.

   It was a trade war, but since trade was criminalized, the conflicts between "businessmen" could not be resolved in the chambers of commerce, but rather on the streets of Chicago. Just as they are resolved today on the streets of Rio de Janeiro.

   No repressive measure managed to end the massacres, whether between gangs or between gangs and the police. The war only ended when Prohibition was repealed. People with brains discovered that eliminating whiskey was impossible.

   Chicago whiskey is today's marijuana and cocaine. Marijuana, which is just a non-poisonous plant, has been turned into a villain. When it was prohibited, it became like gold, and gangs appropriated it. Cocaine is a laboratory product that was popularized by Freud and was sold in Brazilian pharmacies in the 20s.

   Despite all the flaws and mistakes that can be attributed to him, the only politician of any real importance who understood that the solution is not repression, but liberation, was Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Sadly, he has not had any followers to date.

   And that's where we've arrived.

   A few months ago, the current Minister of Justice promised to "eradicate" marijuana throughout Latin America.

   Eradicating ignorance is more difficult than eradicating marijuana.

   Temer is lost in the chaos.