Lula’s party’s constitutional amendment changes the role of the Armed Forces, rewrites Article 142

Later this week, a proposal for an amendment to the Constitution (PEC) that will remove powers from the Armed Forces and rewrite parts of Article 142 of the Constitution is expected to be filed.

Authored by Workers’ Party (PT, progressive-globalist) parliamentarians, the initiative foresees ending military operations of Law and Order Guarantee (GLO), among other things.

The text, which should be presented by congressmen Carlos Zarattini, Alencar Santana Braga, and Rui Falcão still this week, obliges the transfer of military personnel to the reserve when they assume public positions, even if temporary.

In addition to suspending GLO operations and keeping the military only as an auxiliary force in civilian missions, the document removes the main and best-known part of Article 142, which defines the function of the Armed Forces as:

“Defense of the homeland, the guarantee of the constitutional powers and, by the initiative of any of these, law and order” and includes “are destined to ensure the independence and sovereignty of the country and the integrity of its territory.”

With the new wording, the passage would maintain the Armed Forces’ purpose restricted to “ensure the independence and sovereignty of the country and the integrity of its territory.”

In an interview with CNN Brazil about two weeks ago, the deputies justified the change because they believed that the quoted passages were used by Bolsonarists to “justify a military intervention.”

They did not mention whether PT fears this will occur.

The idea, CNN reported, is to rewrite the text to leave no room for doubt about the constitutional powers of the forces.

In this sense, one of the intentions of the debate started within the PT was to suppress the final part “and, by the initiative of any of these, law and order.

With information from Brasil Sem Medo