Cardozo: Temer lacks the legitimacy to resolve any crisis.

247* "The government of the usurper Michel Temer is completely incapable of resolving any crisis," states the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Union in President Dilma Rousseff's government, José Eduardo Cardozo, speaking about the recent massacres in prisons in Amazonas and Roraima.

"Perhaps another government, elected and legitimate, would be able to do it. But I expect nothing from this government. I see no legitimacy, no understanding of reality, no agility, no efficiency. I see nothing," he declared.

According to Cardozo, there seems to be "a great disregard" for the prison system on the part of the current government.

"The biggest proof of this was the expression used by the President of the Republic himself, Michel Temer, when he referred to that situation as an 'accident.' It's not an accident. This kind of attitude is regrettable, revealing a certain mindset. This is not an accident; it's a situation that obviously could have been avoided, could have been managed," he emphasized.

The former Minister of Justice made a point of clarifying that the Brazilian prison system has had problems for decades, but that the ministry is equipped to proactively address these crises.

"It is necessary to seek other forms of punishment. We have to change the incarceration policy in Brazil, which is disastrous for the country and only generates serious problems. Judges and legal professionals believe that the only applicable sanction is imprisonment. This is a mistake. Imprisonment should be the last resort."

"In this specific case, I don't know what information the Ministry of Justice had. The only thing I know, from the press, is that the government of Roraima itself had requested the National Force, and this was denied by Minister Alexandre de Moraes. I think this is really an indicator that shows that the current government is not paying attention to crises as it should," he said.

He reiterated, as he did in his defense of Dilma in the Senate, that "no government that comes to power through a fraudulent, baseless, and fabricated impeachment like this one would have the legitimacy before society to muster the energy to pull the country out of the crisis."

"The result is there for all to see. Those who thought Brazil would change after the impeachment are now seeing that Brazil is much worse off and is likely to get even worse," he pointed out.

Cardozo recalled that when he was Dilma's Minister of Justice, he intervened in crisis situations within the prison system, even creating an intelligence sector within the National Penitentiary Department to monitor what was happening in prisons.

"Whenever you have prior information about a crisis that may occur, potential or not, you intervene, you send the National Force or send a specialist to closely monitor the situation. Sometimes I myself traveled to states so that we could have plans to deal with the situation that arose. This allowed us to avoid some situations," he recalled.

According to him, the Dilma government had begun taking action to address the problem, such as "the largest prison construction program ever undertaken in Brazil."

In their assessment, in addition to building new prisons for closed and semi-open regimes, it is necessary to invest in alternative forms of penal sanction and to link social policies with police policies and prison policies.

"It is necessary to seek other forms of punishment. We have to change the incarceration policy in Brazil, which is disastrous for the country and only generates serious problems. Judges and legal professionals believe that the only applicable sanction is imprisonment. This is a mistake. Imprisonment should be the last resort," argued Cardozo.

According to the former minister, about 50% of our prison population are prisoners without a final conviction, meaning they are subject to precautionary measures.

By Luana Spinillo, from the PT News Agency

Remember the interview that José Eduardo Cardozo gave to TV 247.