With public security at the center of the debate and under pressure to present answers in an election year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) should launch a set of measures focused on combating organized crime.
It is part of Palácio do Planalto’s strategy to try to make a mark in the area and react to criticism about its actions against criminal factions. The package is still under discussion and is expected to be launched by the president next week.
In just over three years of government, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security —a portfolio that has already had three holders, including the current one, Wellington Lima e Silva—, signaled with measures that had little progress or did not have the expected impact on the electorate.
Lula should run for re-election against the senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PL) and against the former governor of Goiás Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), two names that place a lot of emphasis on public safety.
Named Brazil against Organized Crime, the program foresees the issuance of a decree and at least four ordinances detailing the actions. The proposal regulates points of the so-called Antifaction PL and articulates operational and financing measures.
Initially scheduled for this week, the launch was postponed for final adjustments to the budget design that will support the measures. The discussion also involves the Ministry of Planning and Budget and the Civil House.
One of the examples used by people involved in designing the program is Carbono Oculto, which uncovered a billion-dollar scheme of tax fraud, evasion and money laundering.
The operation is considered the largest task force against organized crime in Brazil, with integrated participation from different bodies and aimed at the “top floor of crime” — an expression that Lula has been using when dealing with the issue.
The assessment, however, is that, so far, the initiatives that actually integrate intelligence bodies and security forces, national and local, are sparse and dependent on specific efforts by interested agents, without a clear pattern to be followed that encourages policy.
At the same time, the government is trying to accelerate the PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) of Securitycurrently in Senate. Planalto suggests recreating the Ministry of Public Security in the event of approval of this PEC, but still considers that the measure may not be feasible in an election year and, even more so, on the eve of the dispute.
Brazil against Organized Crime will be structured around four main axes: the fight against arms trafficking, the financial suffocation of factions, the qualification of investigations to solve homicides and serious crimes and the strengthening of the prison system.
The text also foresees the expansion of Cifra (Integrated Financial Investigation and Asset Recovery Committee), currently focused on Rio de Janeiroto other units of the federation, expanding the capacity to track and block illicit resources.
The committee brings together bodies such as the Federal Highway Police, the National Public Security Secretariat, Coaf (Financial Activities Control Council), as well as civil police, Finance departments and Public Ministries.
A focus of attention is to strengthen the use of objective evidence in investigations, with investments in IMLs (Legal Medical Institutes) and the police scientific research, to try to increase the homicide clearance rate in the country.
In Brazil more than 40 thousand homicides occur per year, however, only 36% of these crimes are clarified, with the identification of authorship and the presentation of a complaint by the Public Ministry, according to data from the Sou da Paz Institute.
Added to this, there is a plan to provide more security to state prison systems, which is where organized crime also articulates and recruits new members.
The plan under development also includes improving the management of seized assets, with incentives for early disposal and the holding of centralized auctions at the Ministry of Justice, to provide greater agility in the allocation of these assets.
In this topic, the plan is, in May, to launch a large-scale asset sale action to start the model. The resources gathered must be sent to security funds, thus returning to the prevention and combat system.
The idea is to carry out a fine-tooth comb, with the help of the Judiciary, through the CNJ (National Council of Justice), to group the existing information in processes about factions and seized, blocked or listed assets
The proposal also includes the offer of technological tools to states, such as customized software for analyzing and tracking illicit financial flows, with the aim of qualifying investigations and expanding the ability to identify criminal networks.
Another point is the definition of monitoring methodologies, that is, having both action and measurement schedules and setting goals and indicators, so that the protocols are well-founded.
See some points of the new program
1. Clarification of Homicides
- Improvement of technical evidence with investment in IMLs and scientific police;
- Acquisition of DNA collection kits, ballistic comparators and chain of custody infrastructure;
- Unification of national genetic profile banks and the National Ballistic Analysis System.
2. Combating arms trafficking
- Strengthening of Renarma (National Network to Combat Trafficking in Arms, Ammunition and Explosive Accessories);
- Creation of protocols to identify weapons flows and combat illegal manufacturing, including those made via 3D printers;
- Coordinated actions with states to remove weapons from the hands of factions and militias.
3. Financial Asphyxiation
- Creation of a central unit of Ficco (Integrated Force to Combat Organized Crime);
- Expansion of Cifra (Integrated Financial Investigation and Asset Recovery Committee), currently focused on Rio de Janeiro, to other states;
- Focus on early disposal and centralized auctions at the Ministry of Justice to quickly dispose of assets seized from crime.
- Offering customized software to states to track illicit financial flows.
4. Prison Security
- Bring the security level of state prisons closer to the standards of federal units;
- Distribution of kits containing drones, cell phone jammers, body scanners, georadars for tunnel detection and scanning kits;
- Creation of a National Penal Intelligence Center to coordinate prison information from across the country.
