"This is literally what we call privileges": historian criticizes rules that protect military personnel even after convictions.

247 - Historian Francisco Teixeira stated that the legal structure governing the accountability of military personnel in Brazil maintains mechanisms that hinder complete punishments even after convictions for attempted coups d'état.

The statement was made in an interview with the program Revolução Molecular, on TV 247, while discussing the legal path for the revocation of rank and benefits of convicted military personnel, a topic that, according to him, highlights differences in treatment compared to civilians.

Teixeira explained that, following decisions by the Supreme Federal Court involving members of what he called the "crucial core" and "operational core," the debate over loss of rank and pay is not automatically resolved within the same sphere. He described that, under the current rule, the Supreme Court refers the matter to the Superior Military Court (STM), which, in turn, depends on a prior procedure conducted by military personnel.

“Let’s use simpler words here to make things clearer. The Supreme Court, the one above all others, forwards the matter to the superior, the one below, so that they can decide on ranks and pay,” he said. He then pointed out that the process doesn’t begin in the Superior Military Court: “First, a justification council must be formed.”

According to Teixeira, this council is composed of three military officers with a rank equal to or higher than that of the accused and functions as a filter for the opening of the trial in the STM (Superior Military Court). “This justification council will hear the military officer and decide whether or not he deserves to be indicted by the Superior Military Court,” he stated. He summarized the impact of this structure: “At this moment, a group, a commission of military officers is deciding whether or not the decision of the Supreme Federal Court will be reviewed by the Superior Military Court.”

The historian also detailed that, even in a scenario where the case progresses and a decision is made to forfeit the rank, the salary could continue to exist through an administrative mechanism he mentioned during the interview. "They could lose their rank, but they wouldn't lose their salary because their fictitious death would be decreed. And their closest relative—wife, son, daughter—would continue to receive that salary," he stated.

When comparing this to the logic applied to civil servants, Teixeira argued that the difference is not only procedural, but also substantive. "Other civil servants, the majority of Brazilian citizens, do not hold this position," he said, noting that in the case of teachers and other public employees, administrative decisions can result in dismissal without requiring a trial in a specific court.

According to the historian, this set of rules characterizes a system of exception within the State. "That's literally what we call privileges, right? Private, laws that only serve them," he stated. He added that this arrangement was incorporated into the 1988 Constitution as "an authoritarian dictatorial relic" and "an authoritarian contraband."

Teixeira also criticized the attempt to end the political debate about holding the military accountable with formulas of conciliation and forgetting. Commenting on the phrase "let's turn the page," attributed by him to an executive authority during that period, the historian said he sees a risk of erasure before a public reconstruction of the facts. "The haste to turn the page of history is so great that we run the risk of turning a blank page, a page that hasn't even been written yet," he declared.

In the interview, he concluded that celebrating convictions without addressing the mechanisms that ensure full punishment can produce a sense of closure that does not correspond to the actual functioning of the institutions: "The foundations that generated the coup have by no means been dismantled."