Opinion: a Parliamentary Inquiry for the January 8 events is ready in Brazil, only one important thing is missing

(Opinion) The Mixed Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPMI) that will investigate the attacks on the headquarters of the Branches of Power on January 8 is almost ready to begin its work.

All that is missing is an act by the president of the National Congress, Rodrigo Pacheco, a staunch ally of Lula, who wants this Inquiry never to take place.

The senator is expected to read the commission’s request to establish the commission in the session this Wednesday, 26.

With the creation of the CPMI, the House and Senate party blocs indicate the members.

The collegiate must be formed by 44 parliamentarians: 11 senators as members and 11 with substitutes. The House follows the same pattern, with 11 incumbents and 11 deputies.

When half plus one of the members has been nominated, the oldest congressman of the collegiate convenes the installation session – when the president is elected, who appoints the rapporteur.

Representatives have shown a preference for the presidency of the commission. There is still no consolidated tendency in the Senate on which position to claim.

The benches will meet in the next few days to define which congressmen will participate in the CPMI.

The PT, the party of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said last week that it is already studying measures to prevent the author of the request to open the CPMI from being elected chairman of the committee.

Even the party intends to take the matter to court if the Bolsonarist André Fernandes (PL-CE) becomes the head of the commission.

The installation of CPMI on January 8 should not interfere with the passage of the fiscal framework in Congress, said on Monday 24, the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha.

He reiterated that the calendar that provides for the presentation of the report in the Chamber of Deputies by May 10 is maintained.

“In our opinion, this [the opening of the CPMI] is a political debate within Congress, but it will not disturb the calendar for voting on the fiscal framework.”

THE EVENTS ON JANUARY 8

In the first days, the PT, the left, and those around them launched into a hysterical scream in favor of the CPI – their fixed idea, at the time, was to repress, punish, arrest, and flay the (right-wing) “coup plotters”.

When he became wildly excited in his role as Lula’s dispatcher in Congress, the Senate President even said that the “first signature” calling for the CPI would be his.

Today he is among its main enemies, as are Lula and the PT.

(These images, published in a CNN scoop, showing General Gonçalves Dias, supreme chief of Lula’s “institutional security”, in peaceful coexistence with the invaders of the Planalto Palace on January 8.)

The initial neurosis, after a few days, was substituted by silence – there was no more talk of hunting “terrorists”, investigating the facts, or doing anything else.

Of all the efforts the Lula government has made during these first months, few have been as fierce as its relentless attack to prevent the installation of a CPI (Parliamentary Investigation Committee) from investigating the acts of violence against the Three Powers buildings (as the storming of Congress) on January 8 in Brasília.

It is as if this is the PT government’s main, or the only, program so far.

It is not the economy’s advance, the creation of jobs, the “fight against hunger”, or any of the mirages promised by Lula during the election campaign.

It is not a project to build something; it is to destroy.

It is, in short, a pitched battle in which anything goes, starting with the open buying of parliamentarians’ votes.

Stand against the CPI!

In exchange, get public money, government positions, and other fat handouts!

Today, it has been transformed into open hostility to the CPI; whoever favors the investigation is an enemy.

In the case of January 8, the only punishment that counts is the outbreak of mass arrests ordered by the STF and hidden from the public – that is, an unprecedented affront to the right of defense, the criminal process, and the rest of Brazilian legislation.

The government’s excuse is a joke: they say the CPI would “tumult” the political atmosphere and “prejudice the investigations”.

Tumult? What tumult? The tumult already happened in January; what matters is that it is really investigated.

Furthermore, since when have Lula and the PT ever worried about avoiding tumult?

Their history is to do precisely the opposite – the last turmoil they promoted was the crazy “Covid CPI” when they spent six months using the legal apparatus and the Congress funds to make a crude political campaign against their opponent in the 2022 presidential elections.

They have found absolutely nothing; this whole “Covid CPI” farce has not resulted, so far, in a single criminal case.

Lula and his system, in fact, don’t want the January 8 CPI because there is no way they want anything more to be known about the crimes committed in the attack on the headquarters of the Three Branches of Power.

(New footage of January’s Presidential Palace riot in Brazil shows Lula  at the premises)

Only one investigation is valid – that of the STF, which punishes even those not present at the scene of the attacks.

Furthermore, it is strictly forbidden for the Lula government to ask questions about what happened.

Again, why is this?

The only possible conclusion is that the government wants to hide something very damaging (about Brasilia’s events).

They know something that the public does not know.

They want to protect people who could get into trouble with the CPI.

If they have nothing to fear, why are they doing this?

This article was drafted with automated assistance and reviewed before publication. How we use AI · Report an error