“The impression that I have is that the institutions are strengthened, significantly strengthened, of this process,” said the archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Mons. Paulo Jackson, on the trial in the Supreme Federal Court (STF) that condemned former President Jair Bolsonaro and seven other people for a coup d’etat.
Bolsonaro was sentenced on September 11 by the First Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) at 27 years and 3 months in prison.
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By four votes in favor and one against, the former president was convicted of the five crimes that were imputed to him: attempt to violent abolition of the democratic state of law, attempted coup d’etat, participation in armed criminal organization, qualified damage and deterioration of the protected heritage.
They were also condemned, with different penalties, the ex -helpant of Bolsonaro, Mauro Cid; the former Chief of the General Staff, General Walter Braga Netto; the former Minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet (GSI), General Augusto Heleno; the former Minister of Defense, General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira; the former Minister of Justice and former Secretary of Security of the Federal District, Anderson Torres; the former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin), Alexandre Ramagem; and the former Marine, Admiral Almir Garnier.
Mons. Paulo Jackson, second vice president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), commented on Friday the decision of the STF, at the end of the XVI meeting of bishops from Portuguese language countries, in which he participated since Tuesday in Lisbon, Portugal.
He emphasized that the trial before the Supreme Court focused on the central group of the military coup attempt that occurred in the country on January 8 of last year. “This central group is the best known, since it includes the former president of the Republic, but more than 500 people have already been tried and convicted of this attempted attempted,” he said.
“My impression is that institutions are strengthened, significantly strengthened, of this process,” said Mons. Jackson. “The coup attempt was frustrated, but unfortunately, there were attacks not only against the Supreme Federal Court, but also against the Executive and Legislative powers,” he said.
The vice president of the CNBB said that “who were identified were tried with full access to the system and full defense and were convicted.”
Mons. Paulo Jackson compared the trial in Brazil with the United States Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, after Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 elections.
“My impression is that, even with this institutional crisis, the country and its institutions have been strengthened, even beyond, for example, of the world’s largest democracy, as they claim,” he said. “In the United States, it happened practically the same, there was no trial and, until now, everything has gone unnoticed.”
The Archbishop argued that “it is important to strengthen institutions and defend the democratic state of law.” “And this is what the Catholic Church has done in Brazil, and I think also in our other countries,” he said.
The Prelate also mentioned the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration to the Brazilian products, which entered into force on August 6. He described the “unfair and completely inexplicable” taxes.
“Subsequently, there was an attempt to reconciliation, but the damage was already done. Therefore, I think that Brazilian products will tax as retaliation to the democratic functioning of the institutions is unreasonable,” he said.
The Archbishop of Olinda and Recife also said that there is an important polarization process in Brazil. According to him, it is not something emerging, but something of long data and, unfortunately, it has not only contaminated society, but has also infiltrated our ranks, communities and churches.
According to the archbishop, the church, through the CNBB and the bishops, it has “done a gigantic job to try to mitigate or minimize the consequences of these existing polarization processes.”
“It is a process of reconciliation, of the construction of peace, respect for institutions, legislation and democratic law. The peace construction process cannot dispense with respect to the law, but it is a process, at the spiritual level, which must be involved deeply to our communities,” he said.
Translated and adapted by ACI Press. Originally published in ACI Digital
NATALIA ZIMBRÃO
Natalia Zimbrão has a degree in Journalism from the State University of Rio de Janeiro. He is a journalist from ACI Digital since 2015. He has previous experience in magazines, radio and online journalism.