Justice Minister says he will increase the number of police officers to normalize the flow of highways

The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Anderson Torres, said that he determined the reinforcement of the PRF (Federal Highway Police) to normalize the flow on the highways. The statement was given on social media on Monday night (31).

“Status of road stoppages being monitored minute by minute by the @PRFBrasil and @gov_pf I have just determined a reinforcement of personnel, and means of support, for all possible actions to normalize the flow on the highways, with the brevity that the situation requires”, said the minister.

The PRF recorded this Monday (31), until late in the evening, 321 points of blockages and interdictions on roads in 25 states and the Federal District.

Supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), including truck drivers, started this Sunday night (30) roadblocks across the country in protest against the result of the elections, which had Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) as the winner in the dispute for the Planalto.

THE Sheet had access to videos in which federal police say they will not do anything about the blockades. In one of the images recorded in Palhoça (SC), a police officer says that the order is just to be there.

“The only thing I have to say right now is the only order we have is to be here with you, that’s all,” he said in the image.

The episodes involving the PRF occur one day after the institution failed to comply with a decision by the president of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), Alexandre de Moraes, and made approaches in public transport.

On Saturday night (29), Minister Alexandre de Moraes banned any operation by the PRF against vehicles used in public transport for voters.

The director general of the corporation, Silvinei Vasques, was at the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) building and, in a meeting with the president of the court, Alexandre de Moraes, promised to stop all approaches on buses and obey the minister’s decision.

Prosecutors of the Republic in the five regions of the country have already instituted procedures on the situation and point to the commission, in theory, of the crime against the democratic rule of law.

One of the documents to which the Sheet had access states that the motivations for the protests “are explicitly contrary to the democratic rule of law, requiring military intervention out of mere discontent with the outcome of the presidential elections”.

The PRF also said that it applied to the AGU (Advocacy-General of the Union) to obtain an injunction from the Federal Court “as a way to peacefully guarantee the maintenance of fluidity on the highways”.

Members of the MPF, however, understand that the PRF is able to act administratively against the blocks, for example the imposition of fines, without the need for judicial support.

THE Sheetthe AGU reported that the institution’s legal opinions endorse the PRF’s official action (without the need to take the matter to the judicial sphere), as occurred in 2018, on the occasion of the truck drivers’ strike in the government of former President Michel Temer ( MDB).