Dilma criticizes lowering the age of criminal responsibility: 'it doesn't solve anything'
President Dilma Rousseff criticized on Wednesday (29) the proposals that reduce the age of criminal responsibility; according to her, “all experience shows that reduction does not solve the issue of violence”; for Dilma, combating violence is solved by rigorously punishing adults who recruit teenagers to commit offenses; “We defend that the penalty be aggravated for the adult who uses young people as shields within a criminal organization. It is not about reducing the age of criminal responsibility. It is about aggravating the penalty for the adult who used the young person knowing that, with this, he was reducing his range of action. One cannot believe that the issue of violence affecting young people stems from the issue of the age of criminal responsibility or the reduction of that age of criminal responsibility,” she stated.
Brazil Agency - President Dilma Rousseff criticized today (29) the proposals that reduce the age of criminal responsibility. According to her, “all experience shows that reduction does not solve the problem of violence”. For Dilma, combating violence is solved by rigorously punishing adults who entice teenagers to commit offenses.
“We advocate for harsher penalties for adults who use young people as shields within a criminal organization. This is not about lowering the age of criminal responsibility. It's about increasing penalties for adults who used young people knowing that, by doing so, they were reducing their scope of action. We cannot believe that the issue of violence affecting young people stems from the age of criminal responsibility or lowering that age.”
During the 3rd Rural Youth Festival, organized by the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Contag), the president stated that the government is committed to extending broadband access to rural areas in Brazil. According to her, this "requirement" stems from the fact that everyone is now connected through the internet.
"Hence the importance of the internet for young rural workers and small producers settled through agrarian reform. It is an essential condition for life. Without it, there will be no presence [in the countryside]."
Maria José Morais, representative of Contag, highlighted the presence of the eight million young people who live in rural areas. Maria José stated that some of these young people want to leave the countryside, but others want to continue working in agriculture. “We want to be in the countryside, feeding Brazil. We want to work the land, with sustainable use of natural resources,” she explained.
According to Mazé, as she is known, for young people to remain in the countryside, the Brazilian state needs to develop policies that value youth. She championed the cause of agrarian reform, so that conditions are created for them to remain.
According to Alberto Broch, president of Contag, “more important than the demands is the issue that young people are raising. They want to continue producing food in 10, 20 or 30 years.”
At the festival's opening, the federal government launched the Rural Youth program, which will allocate R$ 5 million to projects by cooperatives and youth associations focused on production.
This edition of the festival has as its theme Youth in the Struggle for Land, Public Policies and Rural Succession in Latin America. The expectation is that 5 young people from Brazil and other Latin American countries will participate in the event, which will end tomorrow (29) with a political act on the Esplanade of Ministries in defense of political reform.
In addition to conferences and thematic panels on the role of youth in the struggle for land, the festival also included educational workshops and cultural activities.