Incoordination and omission explain blockage survival, experts say

The resilience of roadblocks on the country’s roads and avenues may be the result of lack of coordination on the part of public security authorities, political interests in the electoral legacy of the defeated president or a kind of overzealous — potentially selective — of police forces.

These are the main factors mentioned by security experts heard by the Sheet about the apparent delay in clearing the blocked roads in anti-democratic demonstrations by supporters of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who are protesting against the electoral result and preventing the movement of people, products and services.

“This case shows the urgency of reforming the police so that they become more and more professional, less ideological and less permeable to the politics of the occasion”, evaluates Rafael Alcadipani, professor of security at FGV (Fundação Getulio Vargas).

Jacqueline Muniz, professor at the Department of Public Security at UFF (Federal Fluminense University), sees in these episodes a window of opportunity. “Prevarication [deixar de praticar seu ofício] it is a crime and is a breach of both the statute of public servants and the police regulations.

The damage to the police and their loss of credibility authorizes a structural reform that produces governability, and not the gambiaras that Brazil has been doing in this area”, she suggests.

At 8 pm on Sunday, the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) was announced, who had 60.3 million votes, against 58.2 million for Bolsonaro. A few hours later, videos of protesters blocking the first roads were already circulating on the internet. Until the night of this Monday (31), there were more than 300 roadblocks in 25 states and in the DF. On Tuesday night (1st), there were 190 roadblocks in 19 states, according to the Federal Highway Police (PRF).

“It was written in the stars that something would happen [após um resultado desfavorável ao atual presidente]and the intelligence services of the Federal Police and the Ministry of Justice exist for that”, points out sociologist Arthur Trindade, former secretary of Public Security of the DF and director of the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Brasília.

He explains that, upon hearing about the blockades by the intelligence services, these federal authorities would have to initiate two actions. “Convoke effectives to have the means to intervene and articulate with state governments for a coordinated action”, he explains. “Lockdowns and strikes by truck drivers are nothing new in Brazil, and there is a command and control center at the PRF and the Ministry of Justice to coordinate this type of operation.”

According to Trindade, if the federal government does not act, the governors would have to act quickly. “On the part of the states, there is a lack of coordination plus a certain incompetence. I don’t see a soft body”, she says.

The exception is the director general of the PRF, Silvinei Vasques. The corporation carried out a blitz in the middle of an election Sunday, creating insecurity in relation to the vote, especially in the Northeast, region where the president-elect had the most expressive vote.

Vasques is now the subject of a request for an investigation by the Federal Public Ministry, both in relation to his role in the elections and in relation to the roadblocks caused by anti-democratic demonstrations.

Alcadipani does not speak of omission, but of a “much milder than usual” action on the part of the state police in dealing with illegal blockades of supporters of the defeated president.

“This can be due to a fear that police abuses will occur and that this damages the image of the Military Police among the population, as well as the fact that there is an ideological identification with the protesters”, he says. “If it had been a manifestation of another ideological matrix, perhaps there would have been a greater willingness, at the end of the line, to quickly resolve the situation.”

The soft way gained prominence when video records began to emerge of both police officers saluting protesters and ordinary citizens who, impatiently, managed to dismantle roadblocks on their own initiative. So far, there has been no record of violence in these situations.

Atlético Mineiro fans cleared the BR-381 road, in Minas Gerais, and Corinthians fans moved cars from a blockade of supporters of the president on the Tietê marginal, in the capital of São Paulo.

“This voluntarism will cause problems and someone could die. The least that is expected is to coordinate the actions of the authorities”, warns Trindade.

For Glauco Carvalho, reserve colonel and former commander of the PM in the capital of São Paulo, the type of police action with the protesters today is similar to what he witnessed during MST and MTST protests: the negotiation of a peaceful solution.

“Democracy requires conversation and the reduction of the use of force to the minimum possible. It is no longer usual to watch the Shock Troops beating a protester. The last lack of control occurred in the 2013 movement”, he evaluates.

According to Colonel Álvaro Camilo, executive secretary of the São Paulo PM, “there is no connivance or leniency” on the part of the state police. Governor Rodrigo Garcia (PSDB) announced that fines of BRL 100,000 per hour will be imposed for each vehicle that obstructs São Paulo roads. In addition, the protesters will be registered and, eventually, may be arrested, informed Dutra.

“If there was a delay here or there, it’s because of the attempt to solve the blockade peacefully”, says Camilo, citing the complexity of the cases. “More than 400 trucks are stopped on Castelo Branco highway”, he illustrates about the case in which, hours later, there would be a clash between the Shock Troop and protesters.

Camilo explains that the order is to negotiate, then fine and, only then, begin the progressive use of force, which may eventually lead to some arrests.

“The right to demonstrate, which is constitutional, was fully exercised. Now, it is interfering too much with people’s right to come and go,” he says. “We are going to restore order and guarantee democracy. Those who were not happy with the results of the polls, four years from now, will have the opportunity to change.”

Muniz, from UFF, understands that the blockades have been extended because they have political benefits. “Everyone wants the legacy of Bolsonaro’s conservative and moderate votes. And the governors, who could intervene immediately to free up state roads, paid to see, because the maintenance of obstructions had the potential to dehydrate the current president”, he evaluates.

According to Muniz, it is necessary to control the potential for the empowerment of forces, delimit the decision-making freedom of the police at the end and determine what is the coercive capacity of the forces, target of sovereign decision of society. “This is all in the hands of the governors and the president and they are administrative measures.”

For Alcadipani, it is also important to establish a mandate and command plan for police chiefs, in addition to creating a quarantine for police candidacies and some effective control over what police officers can publish on social media. “That’s the big lesson of this whole story.”