PT in manifesto: institutional crisis is the result of the coup.

247 - In a manifesto signed by former president Lula, the party's national president, congresswoman Gleisi Hoffmann, and the party's leaders in the National Congress, congressman Paulo Pimenta and senator Humberto Costa, the PT (Workers' Party) launched a manifesto pointing out that the political and institutional crisis facing the country is a result of the coup that disregarded the Constitution and the democratic rule of law.

"The institutional anarchy in which the country lives is not the exclusive work of Jair Bolsonaro, although he has contributed greatly to it through his disregard for democracy. The situation we are experiencing is the inevitable consequence of small and large attacks on the law and democracy that were tolerated or encouraged in the name of fighting corruption, which, in reality, was a failed campaign to eliminate the PT," says an excerpt from the document.

Check out the full manifesto:

"Six months after an electoral process that was completely out of the ordinary, in which the presidential candidate supported by the majority of the population was arbitrarily excluded and the debate of proposals was prohibited, Brazil is now experiencing a very serious political and institutional crisis."

The harmonious relationship between the Powers, established by the Constitution, gives way to coups and institutional anarchy, amid an escalation of authoritarianism, reaffirmed on Wednesday (17) by the summoning of the National Security Force to Brasília to repress legitimate demonstrations by indigenous peoples in defense of their threatened rights.

Brazil is regressing to a past of repression, censorship, and intolerance; to times when the State, serving the dominant classes, denied freedoms instead of guaranteeing them. The political, corporate, and even personal disagreements involving the heads of the Executive, Legislative, Judiciary, and Public Prosecutor's Office occur under the interference and even the tutelage of reactionary leaders of the Armed Forces, which is unacceptable in a democracy.

Today there is no doubt that at the root of this great crisis is the coup movement that led to the impeachment without a crime of responsibility of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016, and to the conviction, also without a crime, of former President Lula, to prevent him from being elected once again by the majority of the population in 2018. Defeated at the polls for the fourth consecutive time, the coup plotters attacked democracy, rebuilt over years of struggle, with the sacrifice of many lives.

The same sectors that today claim to be affronted, whether by Lava Jato, the Supreme Court, or coercion from the Public Prosecutor's Office or the Federal Police, were complicit, conniving, negligent, or cowardly when state agents affronted the legitimate mandate of President Dilma, the rights and freedom of President Lula, carrying out attacks and leaking lies to the press against the PT, its leaders, and even Lula's family members.

To remove the Workers' Party (PT) from government, the Constitution was torn up in broad daylight, breaking the 1988 national pact that ended the dictatorship and restored democracy. To condemn Lula, the press and institutions sustained a judicial farce that no longer convinces anyone and is rejected by the most renowned jurists in Brazil and the world. To prevent his candidacy, they ignored the law, electoral jurisprudence, and a UN decision that recognized his political rights.

Those who pay the price for this succession of coups are Brazil, internally disordered and internationally demoralized; and our people, who sustained the democratic process in achieving rights and opportunities denied for centuries.

To target the PT (Workers' Party), the Lava Jato operation was driven by arbitrary actions – such as illegal wiretaps and the coercive detention of Lula – and shady negotiations with criminals who lied in exchange for money and reduced sentences. This was laid bare by the recent revelation that OAS executives received millions to lie against Lula and the PT.

Sergio Moro's bias became undeniable when the former judge became a minister in the government he helped elect by convicting Lula without evidence. The promiscuity of Lava Jato with the economic and geopolitical interests of the United States was proven in the agreement, until recently secret, in which they handed over plea bargains and false evidence against our state-owned company to the US justice system in exchange for R$ 2,5 billion for the personal and political gain of the prosecutors.

The institutional anarchy in which the country lives is not solely the work of Jair Bolsonaro, although he has contributed greatly to it through his disregard for democracy. The situation we are experiencing is the inevitable consequence of small and large attacks on the law and democracy that were tolerated or encouraged in the name of fighting corruption, which, in reality, was a failed campaign to eliminate the PT (Workers' Party).

History has many examples of the tragedy we are living through, in Brazil and in other countries where, at certain times, the rule of law has been subjugated by political persecution under any pretext. This was the case with the Reign of Terror in France, the rise of fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany, McCarthyism in the United States, and the dictatorships in Latin America. Many of those who today lament the institutional crisis are responsible for having created it. They hatched the egg of this serpent.

The Workers' Party (PT) was founded almost 40 years ago to defend the rights of the people and the fullness of democracy, always acting within the law, whether in political institutions, social movements, factories, schools, or on the streets. No other political party in Brazil has a trajectory – whether in opposition or government – ​​that gives it more authority to advocate for the defense of democracy and institutional normality.

Our party clearly understands that institutions must investigate, prosecute, and punish, strictly within the law, those who spread fake news, and state agents who illegally leak classified, false, or unconfirmed information to destroy reputations and engage in blackmail.

Throughout the campaign to discredit Lula and the PT through the media, which has been systematic for the last five years, we appealed to the courts for the right of reply and for the punishment of those responsible. We were never heard. Not even when the leak of the illegal wiretap of a conversation between former presidents Lula and Dilma bore the official stamp of then-judge Sergio Moro, who to this day has not been held accountable for this crime committed more than three years ago.

At a time when so many voices are rising up against the censorship of an online magazine that has never been known for its credibility or editorial impartiality, it is worth remembering that, also by a unilateral decision of a Supreme Court Justice, President Lula has been prohibited from giving interviews since September of last year. Where were these voices when the country's most prominent political leader was violently censored?

Where were they when independent journalists, such as Luís Nassif, Marcelo Auler, Renato Rovai, and others, were persecuted and convicted for publishing serious allegations against state agents? Where were they when Veja published a false cover, accusing Lula and Dilma three days before the 2014 election? When Folha de S. Paulo revealed Bolsonaro's industry of lies, paid for with illegal campaign contributions even from foreigners, on the eve of the election?

The Workers' Party (PT) has never defended, never practiced, and will never defend censorship, not even against our most deceitful detractors. But we are clear that, to restore the rule of law and democracy, it is fundamental to investigate, judge, and punish, strictly within the law, those state agents who violate it under any pretext – the supposed intention of doing justice or criminal blackmail.

If, in recent years, institutions had simply upheld the law, without personal fears or political constraints, the forces of arbitrariness and violence would not have reached where they have. No one doubts that their crimes will be judged by history, but their mistakes are already being punished in the present, through the chaos into which they have plunged the country and the suffering of our people.

The wealthy, the rentiers, the landowners, the representatives of foreign interests; the reactionaries, the prejudiced and the fundamentalists who spread hatred, intolerance and authoritarianism are responsible for yet another national tragedy.

Their objective has always been clear: to surrender national sovereignty, our wealth and potential; to destroy our capacity for autonomous development; to revoke the achievements of the people, the workers and the citizenry; to end retirement and the rights of the elderly, rural and urban workers; to return absolute control of the State to the dominant classes, formed in three centuries of slavery that made Brazil one of the most unjust and unequal societies in the world.

The Workers' Party (PT) is ready to rebuild, together with the people and all democratic forces, a better and fairer Brazil, as we have been doing since the redemocratization and especially since Lula's government in 2003. Our people have already shown that they are capable of overcoming great crises. And history proves that this is only possible when there is political freedom and full democracy.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, honorary president of the PT (Workers' Party).
Gleisi Hoffmann, national president of the PT (Workers' Party).
Paulo Pimenta, leader of the PT in the Chamber of Deputies
Humberto Costa, leader of the PT in the Federal Senate/