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Security of the headquarters building and annexes of the STF will have a 70% increase in the number of police officers | Photo: Gervásio Baptista/SCO/STF

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The Federal Supreme Court (STF) reinforced security for the demonstrations on September 7 in Brasília. One of the measures, already announced and agreed with the Security Department of the Federal District, is the veto of the entry of trucks and cars on the Esplanada dos Ministérios. The measure was taken because of threats of invasion of the Court by trucks in the demonstrations on September 7 of last year – which did not happen.

 

Concrete roadblocks and large police vehicles will begin to be erected on Monday (5), to avoid surprises, as in 2021, when trucks started to arrive at the scene of the acts on the 6th, which was not expected. On that occasion, undercover security agents who were in plainclothes reported danger of invasion and even implosion of the main STF building in the early hours of the 7th, when there were few police officers in the area. The tension lasted until the 8th, when several vehicles and protesters still occupied the Esplanade.

 

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The scenario worried the president of the STF, Luiz Fux, who sought greater preparation with other local and federal security agencies for 2022. The security scheme began to be dealt with six months ago with the military and civil police, fire department, legislative police of the Senate and the Chamber, Federal Highway Police, Department of Roads and Highways (DER), National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) and Institutional Security Office (GSI), linked to the Presidency of the Republic.

 

Just to protect the Court's headquarters, in Praça dos Três Poderes, there will be a 70% increase in the number of judicial police officers – STF's own security agents – who work in and around the buildings. The number of agents will not be disclosed, but to reach that level, armed men were also summoned to guard other higher courts in Brasília and São Paulo, for example.

 

All of them will have at their disposal heavy firearms (such as pistols, carbines and rifles) and non-lethal weapons (electroshock devices, "tasers"; pepper gas and tear gas. The orientation, however, is for "selective and selective" use. proportionality of force.” As they are police officers, they can arrest, open fire and physically confront any invader or aggressor, as long as it is on the premises or in the vicinity of the STF.

 

There will also be personal security guards with each minister of the Court, who will not have agendas and location informed before, during and after the demonstrations. Police officers from the intelligence area monitor social networks and have already collected names of guests from the hotel chain in the central area of ​​Brasília. Based on this information, the expectation is that there will be a crowd more or less close to what was seen on the Esplanada dos Ministérios in 2021.

 

STF ministers expect less hostile climate than in 2021

But if, on the one hand, the STF's security apparatus this year is greater, the expectation among ministers is that the 2022 demonstrations will be less hostile to the Supreme Court. Many believe that the president and his supporters will be more focused on the electoral dispute than on institutional conflict. The bet is that the tone will be one of opposition to the return to power of the PT and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and less of confrontation with STF ministers.

 

Unlike 2021, in the Court's recent history there are no judgments or measures that clashed with government policies, as occurred in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, for example. On the other hand, ministers are also aware of the possibility of protests against decisions by Minister Alexandre de Moraes considered abusive – especially the one that, in August, determined searches, breach of confidentiality and blocking of accounts and social networks of eight businessmen who support Bolsonaro – in private WhatsApp messages, some said they preferred a coup to a PT government.

Sourge: Gazeta do Povo