The Monkey Wrench Gang | Jirau Riots

Workers leave the work site. Source: Militância Viva. “Socialism or barbarism!”

From the daily clipping file, surprising news about how far eco-Brazlians are prepared to go to block a huge hydroelectric project in Greater Amazonia.

After consulting with the lead contractor, Camargo Corrêa, and mulling over reports from the Ministry of Mining and Energy and Brazil’s national intelligence service, the federal presidency decided to call up a contingent from the National Public Security Force and the federal police to take charge of the worksite for the  Jirau dam, in the state of Rondônia. President Rousseff is following the situation and requested that workers be withdrawn from the site and accomodated in safety.

Using at least 300 buses, Camargo transported 19,000 workers from the job sites on both banks of the Madeira River, called a halt to all activity, and cannot say at the moment when work will resume. In all, the compay is employing 22,000 workers in the constructrion of the plant, one of the largest projects in the PAC,  directing flow of the Madeira River through the Santo Antônio generating station.

Roberto Silva, head of labor relations at Camargo Corrêa, confessed to the Estado de S. Paulo daily that “the city really can’t hold this many people” and that the only solution was to pay the bus and airfare of workers from other states who wanted to go home. The company had been using building owned by the state cultural and industrical secretariates to house several hundred workers.

Yesterday, directors of the  Energia Sustentável do Brasil (ESBR) group, the consortium responsible for the project, together with cabinet ministers, decided that the first step, after establishing  security, will be to reconstruct the mess halls and dormitories, making it possible for workers to return to the site little by little. Today, the state government and the consortium are due to state that they have control over the area, hoping to discourage workers from continuing to quit at the current rate.

According to Rondõnia Live, work was interrupted by “a series of a acts of vandalism, sparked by a dispute between a bus driver and a consortium construction worker.

The state secretary of public security said the incident was highly unusual and that state police never expected things to get so far out of hand — out of hand to the point of absurdity, in his view. After citing actions taken by state police in response to the vandalism, he stressed that the situation caused only property damage, with no injuries or deaths.

Yesterday, two men were arrested setting fire to buildings owned by a subsidiary of the lead contractor, according to Rondônia Now. The arson was captured on camera by reporters at the scene, the local paper says. Rondônia Today confirms the account and adds details of arm-twisting by the minister of Labor to get the contractor to pay wages and transport to idled workers under a formal annex to the original contract.

Workers rioted at the work site in the middle of last week, burning dormitories and vehicles.

According to the ESP, the labor management problems brought on by have led to the resurgence of crazy informal recruitment schemes not seen since the Economic Miracle, under the military dictatorship — whose own great white elephant was the Transamazonian Highway. The current government has staked a great deal on this project being an ordinary elefant, ready sometime this year to begin fueling industrialization in the most underdeveloped areas of northern Brazil. 

Obama Walks the Corda Bamba | Barack in Rio

“I feel as though folks in Rio like me …”

Carlos Latuff, alt.cartoonist of the year, on the state visit of Obama, which naturally has been overshadowed by dramatic images of Libyan jets going down in flames and whole fleets steaming along the Mediterranean coast.

Those who kept their attention focused on the bilateral talks Obama came here to engage in seem optimistic about trade concessions and a reform of the UN that would make Brazil a permanent member of the Security Council.

Carta Maior, perhaps one of the best-known voices of the institutional left, is derisive about multilateral military action.

These people managed to get themselves elected. Often. I figure you should try to keep up with their thinking

The Web site front-page editorializes.

Obama: ‘The people of Libya need protection’
Massacres in Yemen and Bahrain are tolerated

I am feeling lazy and am just going to gist this, more or less.

The editorial mocks Obama confrontational tone with Libya — a country that reminds one of Machado de Assiss’s The Alienist — while Bahrain is occupied by Saudi troops enforcing martial law. Even so, thousands took to the streets this Friday, says our source, to honor an opposition leader killed by the regime. The government response is said to have destroyed Pearl Square, rallying point for the protestors.

We are reminded of Bahrain’s status as a “guard shack” for Saudi oil, with its USAF bases and the Fifth Fleet and the like. The editorial claims 41 have died in Yemen just today.

Interesting review of a new book on the growing and more or less inevitable U.S.-Brazil rivalry over the next several decades.

Merda | Merval and Mainardi

Veja magazine’s Max Headroom by live link to Manhattan Connection in New York

New and noted from the drib-drab of Cablegate telegrams is the account of a meeting between the U.S. ambassador and two “prominent local journalists” in Rio de Janeiro.

• Merval & Mainardi: On The Side of Serra and Uncle Sam « CartaCapital.

It was inevitable that these contacts with the press would surface — contacts with journalists and academicians of other politial inclinations have also been reported, though in many of the cases I read of, the invitee brought his lawyerwith hime — and that these two in particle would catch it in the head when they did.

I hope Ambassador Sobel was briefed on the risks of being disinformed by the two journalists in question prior to the meeting. As the summary describes, the two eminent journalists spent most of their time as errand boys to the powers that be.

Merval Pereira of O Globo was the journalist referred to in an e-mail between a Brazilian corporation in some legal trouble and their attorney. According to this e-mail, “the defamation campaign was set to begin” on a certain date and all that was left to settle was whether Pereira would sign it or whether it would run as an unsigned editorial.

It is pretty nauseating watching these two Kafkaesque creatures scutttling about, repeating the received wisdom of the Candidate in their columns and serving as messenger boys between political heavyweights.

2. (SBU) During a private January 12 lunch, prominent Veja magazine political columnist Diogo Mainardi told Rio Principal Officer that Mainardi’s recent column proposing Green Party (PV) presidential candidate and former Lula environment minister Marina Silva as the ideal vice presidential candidate on Jose Serra’s (PSDB) ticket was based on a long conversation between Serra and Mainardi, in which Serra said Marina Silva would be his “dream running mate.”

That is to say, “I wrote that because Serra told me to write it.”

Serra outlined in that conversation with Mainardi the same advantages that Mainardi later listed in his column: Marina’s life story and impeccable leftist credentials would trump Lula’s personal appeal to poor Brazilians and place Dilma Rouseff (PT) at a disadvantage with the left, while helping Serra mitigate the association with the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso which Lula/Dilma hope to use as a point of attack in the campaign. That said, Mainardi does not expect Marina to sign on with Serra, as she wants to establish her own credibility by running for president. However, Mainardi said he thinks – as does Serra – that Marina might well support Serra in a second round runoff with Dilma.

That did not happen. The Green vote, which made its presence felt in the first round, was told by Marina they were free to vote their conscience, and the greenwashers — the VP candidate is CEO of Natura, a natural beauty products company — got separated out in the spin-dry.

3. (SBU) On a more realistic level, Mainardi indicated to PO that Minas Gerais Governor Aecio Neves told Mainardi earlier this month that Neves remains “completely open” to the possibility of running as vice presidential candidate with Serra. (Note: On December 17, 2009 Neves officially terminated his “pre-candidacy” for the Presidency and indicated he had no interest in running for vice president — reported reftel. End Note). Despite Neves’ public statements that he will run for Senate, Mainardi said Neves plans to wait for a scenario in which PSDB, perhaps by March, asks Neves to join the ticket, to assure the strongest possible chance against Dilma. Neves’ own ambitions and his inextricably linked desire not to be a spoiler for the PSDB in the coming race would lead Neves to join the ticket, in Mainardi’s opinion.

Neves ran for Senate and now leads the opposition from that position. Amid an opposition in disarray, he seems to know what he is doing,

This was echoed by Merval Pereira, columnist for Rio’s newspaper of record “O Globo,” who recounted to PO on January 21 a conversation Pereira had with Neves the day before, in which Neves said he was “firmly committed” to helping Serra in any way, including joining the ticket.

A Serra-Neves ticket, opined Pereira, would win, and Pereira personally believed that not only would Neves run with Serra, but that Marina Silva would also support Serra in a runoff.

I thought so, too, but the PSDB has burdened itself witn an oath of fealty to the DEM-PFL, god only knows why.

4. (SBU) Rio Federal Deputy Marcelo Itagiba (PSDB), who is closely involved with the Serra campaign, told Rio Poloff that Marina was his clear preference as Serra’s VP. He cited the practical benefits to the Serra campaign, most notably the increase in television airtime he would gain by tapping into Marina’s share (Comment: Given that party campaign airtime is based on legislative seats won in 2006 and the PV’s minimal showing in that election, increased airtime for a Serra-Marina ticket would be negligible. End Comment). At the same time, Itagiba shared Mainardi’s assessment of Neves, stating Neves would likely join the Serra ticket, if a Serra first round victory does not appear assured. “If this is the will of the party, Neves will accept,” he said.

The Landless Gringos Movement | New Ban on Land Sales to Non-Brazilians

Cane fields, São Paulo. Critics question the wisdom of betting so heavily on monoculture. One hears that these vast stretches make great hiding places for pot cultivation.

It came out it in the Estadao

BRASÍLIA – The government has resolved to ban new sales and mergers, to or with foreigners, of Brazilian firms with landholdings in Brazil. In the view of the federal executive, this type of transaction is being used to get around restrictions imposed last year on the sale to or leasing of lands by foreign investors.

The ban was published in a notice in the Official Diary on Tuesday by the federal attorney-general and the Ministry of Trade and Development, which will pass the message to the industrial sndicates: deals transferring a controlling share in rural properties to strangers will no longer be recognized. According to the order, any such deals already made will be sorted out in the courts..

The industrial synidcates will also aid the title registries to identify foreign capital in firms seeking to buy land.

The initiative by Delopment minister  Luiz Inácio Adams is the latest in a series of attempts to curb foreign ownership of Brazilian land. In August 2010, an opinion by the AGU place the restrictions on Brazilian firms controlled by foreigners individuals or firms as those in place banning sale to foreign individuals.

Barack Hits the BRICs

Newish and noteworthy, and originally published in Valor Econômico —

• With Obama visit, Brazil hopes to become a “global actor” — Portal ClippingMP.

I translate some passages from the analysis

In talks with Hillary Clinton, Brazilian foreign minister Patriota heard praise for the performance of Brazi-led U.S. troops in Haiti and Brazil’s handling, as a non-permanent member, of matters before the UN Security Council. Hillary called Brazil a “global strategic partner” of the United States.

Brazilian diplomats were quick to pick up on the choice of the term “global”. There are signs that discussions between the U.S. chief executive and congress could result in a firmer commitment by Obama with respect to Brazil’s desire to gain a permanent seat on the Security Council, which plays a key role in UN interventions. During a visit to India, Obama announced explicit support for that country’s bid for permanent membership, despite India’s history of refusing nucear non-proliferation treaties and its dealings with Iran.

Obama and Dilma could even announced talks over the reduction, or even elimination, of the visa requirement for Brazilians visiting the U.S.  — the subject is on the official agenda. Also expected are donations from philanthropies like the Fullbright Foundation, to increase knowlege exchanges in science and technology (one of the main themes of the Obama visit and expected to be the sujbect of the most substantial announcements).

In the area of trade, where there is no possibility of announcing changes to current tariffs and duties — such as those charged on ethanol and orange juice by Uncle Sam — the major advances should take the form of closer relations between Brazilian and U.S. bureaucrats to ease public health procedures, as well as new means of publishing and enforcing patents.

Hopes are high that an economic and trade agreement can be reaqched that will stimulate dialogue and eliminate technical,  public health and other barriers to product entry. The patent agreement would enable INPI, the Brazilian patent agency, to place U.S. patents on the “fast track,” under which patent applications refused in the U.S. would automatically be removed from consideration here, for instance. Also expected are accords over the mutual recognition of techncial standards by the relevant bodies — Inmetro, in Brazil’s case — of the two goverrnments.

So, Brazil will have its fifteen minutes of fame in the U.S. press. Anyone want to buy a 1,500 word backgrounder?

Journalist and Source | «I Spy The Folha Guy»

After the abrupt sacking of a senior state law enforcement official over official corruption to a minor, by local standards, degree, a general sense of unease has fallen over the police forces here.

Mauro Malin says so in the Observatório da Imprensa.

The interview is classic Brazilian journalistic self-panegyric, full of heroism and principle.

On the other hand, statements of the form “Should I turn up dead …” coming from a Brazilian journalists are not automatically absurd on the face of things. Journalists do get whacked with relative impunity here.

It is not only in Rio that state security apparatus harbors explosive conflicts. In the Estado de S. Paulo on Friday, the publication of images from a closed circuit TV system in the Patio Higienopolis shopping mall showed a meeting between Antônio Ferreira Pinto, state secretary of public security, and Mario Cesar Carvalho, a reporter for the Folha de S. Paulo. The story was headlined “Police stalk securitty secretary.”

As quoted in the ESP, the secretary said the meeting at the posh mall concerned the strip-searching of a police clerk. According to blogs that published the imagines, the topicof converations was the irregularities committed by senior aide Túlio Khan, accuised of selling confidential data. The meeting took place on the same day that story appeared in the Folha. One of the blogs I refer to is supposedly written by a policeman. He remains anonymous. It should be remembered that the Constitution of 1988, in granting the right of free speech, recognized no right to anonymity.

Mario Cesar Carvalho gave this, our Observatório da Imprensa, an interview on this episode:

Mario Cesar Carvalho – I have a strong impression that I am being spied on by what I would call the rotten element in the police.  By that, I mean senior officers investigated for corruption. There are a number of cases underway now in São Paulo suggesting embezzlement at the motor vehicles department, with traffic cops, and at Denarc, the narcotics squad. I have a very strong impression that these people are following me, listening to my cell phone calls, to the point where they know exactly where I am.

This is taking place in the broader context of an undeclared war, a muffled war, between the state secretary, Antônio Ferreira Pinto, and the transport secretary, Saulo [de Castro Abreu Filho], who headed Security in the government before the current Alckmin regime. Saulo backers were directly affected by measures that Ferreira Pinto adopted in an effort to clean up the police. The reaction of this element in the police department has been to try to blackmail the press, spying on a journalist. The  Folha,obviously, does not bow down to this type of intimidation.

According to Malin, the Folha milks the heroic martyrdom angle for all it’s worth, “dedicated over half the Panel page to the episode” today, as well as the cover of the Caderno section.”

Globo has a program called “I, Reporter” featuring investigative journalist Caco Barcellos in a program that makes the reporter and how he reports the center of the story. Trouble is that Barcellos has not investigated anything since his intimate conversations with a Rio drug gang leader, and did the amazing research on death squad practices in the São Paulo police, Rota 66: A Polícia que Mata, in his spare time.

It is a bit nauseating, watching Caco mugging for the cameras, “Look at me, I am journalizing now!” But nothing will ever take away the achievement of Rota 66.

The Folha cites remarks by the secretariate of security in which sources say there are “strong indications that criminal groups used the CCTV images to spy on a ranking public official and a journalist. This conviction jibes with what Carvalho told us.

I translated very carefully there. This was not the Secretary speaking, this was some unnamed person who works at the Secretariate.

The leaking of the footage will be the object of a formal probe, said São Paulo attorney-general Fernando Grella Vieira. The Estado piece also reports that when governor Geraldo Alckmin that no one from the state government requested the tapes, the shopping mall, which previously had said the requests came through “official channels”, started saying the request came from “police agents.”

You should read what the police blogs are saying about this reporter.

The police blogs are quite the phenomenon … and often a terrifying read.

Mario seems to be best-known for his kick-ass, take-names exposé of the tobacco industry published in 2001.

Some very hairy things are about to happen here. Hopefully for the better.

Goiânia | Death Squad Supporters Picket Regional Daily

‘Cause the cop don’t need you and man, they expect the same

As Observatório da Imprensa observes of the regional press, there are still parts of Brazil where the the most organized crime going is the cops,who are ready and willing to kill your ass if you object to the status quo. I translate

On January 9 the daily O Popular, of Goiânia, kicked off a series of reports titled   “Where Are They?”, dealing with people who have disappeared in the Center-Western state after being pulledover by police. The journal found that that more persons have disappeared in the state since redemocratization than disappeared under the dictatorship: 29 disappearances between 2000 abd 2010 compared with 15 state residents disappared during the dicatorship. The paper ran a high-impact headline that day: “More disappeared under democracy than under dictators”. Later, O Popular ran another series about suspected death squad activity by police, revealing that  117 pessoas were killed by state military police between 2003 and 2005.

On February 14, the Federal Police began Operation Sixth Commandment (thou shalt not kill, in the Bible translation used by protestants) and arrested 19 PMs accused of murdering or “disappearing” at least 40 persons in Goiás. The feds got involved after one of the crimes attributed to the group took place in Torixoréu, in Mato Grosso, giving the feds the right to asseert jurisdiction.

I think this may be because the area is an indigenous zone, but I am not sure.

The PM Pistoleiros and the anti-Wikileaker

We took along our free copy, delivered to our door, of the Folha yesterday  — I thought that would have expired long ago, but the Institute of Circulation must be making its rounds — and I gisted the following stories for my wife — a regular practice of ours because it is true what they say

Driving makes you stupid.

In the first incident, 180 military police in Osasco — a 20-minute drive from here –raided a Hooverville there in search of a high-precision sniper’s rifle used by a death squad in a murder for hire scheme business run by ex-police.

The cases noted by the Folha all involved former military police murdering current military and state judicial police.

In a related story — only in Brazil — the 79-year-old founder of Gol Airlines is arrested on fresh charges of contracting for a murder for hire — he wanted to whack a witness against him in a case of murder for hire prior to this one, in which someone actual wound up dad. The paterfamilias has returned to the jungles of Tocantins where he wages war to keep the old ways alive.

The second story was, not so much the case itself, but a source of surprise that it caused such a hullabaloo.

A very well-known and prestigious sociologist put in charge of crime statistics for the state government opened a consultancy on the side and was profiting from the sale of this confidential public property to private parties. Call him the anti-Wikileaker.

He not only said he had permission to do so, but that the idea came from a supeior. But first, out on LRP duty in the Vietnamese bush of Sambodia.

Military police internal affairs mobilized 180 men Thursday morning in Osasco in a hunt for a .223 rifle used by a death squad to kill six cops in 2009 and 2010. Among the dead were four PMs and 2 state judicial police .

During the operation, two men were arrested on suspicion of membership in a criminal faction. Six weapsons were seized, along with grenades and drugs –but not the rifle sought. All the evidence collected is being taken to Deic, an anti-organized crime division.

It used to be that GAECO battled oganized crime.

The state prosecutor had applied for an arrest warrant on ex-PM Luiz Roberto Martins Gavião, suspected of heading the criminal grouip.

The warrant request came from GAECO Guarulhos, after a wiretap indicated he was the culprit in the murder of Douglas Noaldo Yamashita, io Santo André (ABC), in April 2010.

The group that police is headed by Gavião comprises some 10 former cops and charges from R$ 30,000 to R$ 50,000 per hit.

Gavião was also partners in a security businesss with Paulo Sérgio Óppido Fleury, fired from the state police in 2010 for administrative irregularities.

Yes, he is the son of that Sérgio Fleury, the sadistic thought police chief of DOI-DOPS..

Fleury, said prosecutor Marcelo Alexandre Oliveira, is suspected of booking jobs for the group of hired killers. Fleury denies any role and says he is being “persecuted.”

Accused by Gaeco as the group’s triggerman, the ex-PM Jairo Ramos dos Santos confessed to killing Yamashita some days after the crime,when he was arrested wearing a disguise and seeking hospital treatment. He had been wounded while firing on the civil police agent.

Data Privacy and Data Privatization

Kahn’s humiliating dismissal run against the grain of a state whose official motto could be, “For our friends, anthing; for our enemies, the Law.”

Rather than, non duco ducor.

Tongues will wag about internecine strife within the ruling Social Democrats.  Kahn is apparently now saying that former state security chief Saulo de Castro, now heading Transportation, advised him to set up a consultancy on the side and charge private customers for state-owned data.

Kahn was fired yesterday, after the Folha reported he was selling consulting services that made use of statstics on violence in the State.

The reliability of this information, so politically important and so statistically muddle, may not survive another scandal like this.

Kahn was hired for the post in 2003. Castro headed Public Security at the time, during the first mandate of Governor Alckmin (2003-06).

During which time the gutters ran with blood and all kinds of hinky shit got pulled.

Castro said he knew Kahn was a partner at Angra Consultoria e Representação Comercial.

Kanh confirmed that, on belalf of the  Freight Shippers Syndicate  o Sindicato das Empresas de Transporte de Cargas de SP he personally paid two CAP employees to research and study state figures.

These are private employees, paid by a private firm, with access to public property considered confidential. The syndicate says the contract is legal.

Castro said the partnership was formed because of the disparities between union and state figures on robbery and theft of loads.

He said that in his view the Syndicate is not a private interest but the spokesman for a group of companies..

I get hired to represent all privately owned lemonade stands in the neighborhood, but does not make me the agent of those stands.

Saulo is influential in the current Alckmin government, but has lost some juice in his traditional power center — public safety. He and safety secretary Ferreira Pinto are vying behind the scenes for influence over Alckmin.

The day before yesterday, Kahn had told this paper that creating was done at the request of the state government.

He said it was suggested as a way of supplementing his monthly government salary of R$ 5.000..

Fees of from $R20,000 to $30,000 were mentioned for these private reports.

It costs about as much to commit mayhem as to measure it, it seem.

So many scandals of this sort have been quashed in the past — not even the ex-mayor who set aside lots of municipal debt paper for himself and cronies was ever tried, much less convicted.

The Folha and Estadão seem to have undertaken a minor crusade since the scandal over the federal district governor.

Good for them. Both are at their best when standing up for the taxpayer.

I expect a mild epidemic of cases similar to those seen recently in Rio — where the state police chief resigned and was arrested for racketeering.

Everybody knows it but is simply afraid to say it.

The Morning Mexerica: ICE Advances In Tropical Heat Wave

I jot down some items that may or may not be of interest to someone, possibly even myself.

BR Insurance has just acquired ENESA — a deal worth just $4.2 million, but I am recalling a consolidation trend was predicted for this year.

Not long after BATS announced it would set up a trading and clearing operation here in Brazi, now InternationalExchange (NYSE:ICE), a trading venue for regulated global futures and OTC issues, has gotten its license to drive from the CVM, Brazil’s SEC

ICE products will be sold to qualified Brazilian investors through ICE Futures Europe as long as a Brazilian intermediary is used, says the press release. ICE Futures U.S. has been operating in this way in Brazil since getting the imprimatur of the CVM in October 2009. The world has yet to end.

With the Santos Basin deepwater oil discoveries to be pumped out and translated into revenues for all and sundry, a company flack says, the ICE Brent Crude Oil future should be especially useful.

The tipsheet Relatório Reservado believe that Alstom — in trouble over bribes allegedly paid to São Paulo officials during bidding on a subway car consignment — could have serious competition in Zhejiang Insigma, which has managed to snappe up electricity transmissiono concessions while satisfying a quota on domestically  built equipment. .Brazilian and a pool of Chinese equipment markerare said tobe in talks.

“The Secular State Is The Antichrist” | Eros

Um panfleto anticlerical — the Estado de S.Paulo calls a public lawsuit seeking to ban religious education in the public school ‘an anti-clerical screed.”

The author is a recently retired Supereme Court justice, Eros Grau, once referred to by the Estadão as “a fish out of water” on the Supreme Court.

One day we will discover that senior Brazilian judges are flying up on junkets to imbibe the ideology. As neocons rally around religions in the schools, this editorial sounds like it has passed through the universal galactic translator on Star Trek.

Criticism and certain actions do not not necessarily merit our repudation of the person who made them  While the federal attorney, the PGR, merits our respect as an institution, its suit to declare religious instruction in the schools unconstitutional, filed by the AGR itself, is simply unpardonable. Proposed in August 2010, this suit — this unpardonable affront — will now be ruled on by the Supreme Court.).

In November 2008 Brazil and the Holy See signed a bilateral accord whose Article 11 commits Brazil to respect religious education, bearing in mind the role of public education in forming the person as a whole.

So send your kids to parochial school, that is where my wife was educated. I went to Methodist Sunday school.

In doing so, Brazil should bear in mind its religious freedoms, cultural diversity and the variety of confessions in the country. Moreover, the accord states that all religious education, Catholic or otherwise, in which enrollment is voluntary, should adhere to normal school hours, assuring religious respect and toleration.

There is absolutely nothing new in all of this. The 1996 education  bill has already established voluntary enrollment in religious education as part of the basic education of a citizen and adheres to the normal daily schedule for elementary education. Moreover, the bill ensured the religous diversity of the bill and barred all forms of proselytism.

So it is that, in order for the PGR to plead before the Supeme Court that the pact with the Holy See was unconstitutional, would be the same, by exxtension,.as arguing the unconstitutionality of the education bill.

It is a delicate issue, for although this law has been in force for 14 years without a single challenge, the PGR is compelled,in questioning the constitutionality of the diplomatic agreement, to deal with the issue.

If it did not, the unjustified result would be the nullification of the Vatican accord. A delicate situation. The simple fact of this accord has led the PGR to conclude that religious education is incompatible with the Constitution.

And so, after 14 years of inertia, the  PGR wants the  STF to declare “that religious instruction in public school must  be nondenominational, barring qualified teachers with denominational affiliations”. If the court will not agree with this, he will call to strike the phrase “Catholic and other religious denominations” in Paragraph1 of Article  11 of the Vatican accord..

The PGR admits that religious instruction is part of our cultural heritage. But it has to be taught, says the PGR,,by nondemoninational teachers, which is to say by professors with no religious faith or creed.

A ação proposta pela Procuradoria-Geral da República aponta contra o acordo Brasil/Santa Sé e é, de fato, um panfleto anticlerical. Um panfleto no mínimo anticatólico.

Pois não há dúvida nenhuma de que a Constituição do Brasil garante em sentido amplo a liberdade de ensino religioso. Leia-se o parágrafo 1.º do seu artigo 210: “o ensino religioso, de matrícula facultativa, constituirá disciplina dos horários normais das escolas públicas de ensino fundamental”.

Essa liberdade é, como se vê, entre nós plenamente assegurada: a frequência é facultativa – os pais decidem a esse respeito, possibilitando, ou não, aos filhos formação espiritual – mas a disciplina é obrigatoriamente oferecida a todos os alunos.

Isso é muito próprio à cultura nacional, que a Constituição, para ser legítima, há de refletir. Somos plasmados, os brasileiros, também por uma religiosidade bem nossa, ao ponto de Deus ser brasileiro e os que aqui se proclamam materialistas em maioria não professarem o ateísmo. A laicidade do Estado não significa inimizade com a fé.

A Constituição do Brasil garante amplamente a liberdade de ensino religioso. É francamente avessa ao anticlericalismo. Promulgada “sob a proteção de Deus”, como o seu preâmbulo afirma, não reduz a laicidade estatal a ateísmo. Proíbe ao poder público, é verdade, estabelecer cultos religiosos ou igrejas, subvencioná-los, embaraçar-lhes o funcionamento ou manter com eles ou seus representantes relações de dependência ou aliança – ressalvada, na forma da lei, a colaboração de interesse público (artigo 19, I). Mas seu artigo 213 autoriza expressamente o poder público a encaminhar recursos públicos a escolas comunitárias, confessionais ou filantrópicas. Seu artigo 150, inciso IV, b, assegura a imunidade dos templos de qualquer culto à instituição de impostos e o parágrafo 2.º do seu artigo 226 atribui efeitos civis ao casamento religioso, nos termos da lei.

Nossa Constituição, como se vê, recusa o anticlericalismo e, no parágrafo 1.º do seu artigo 210, garante a todos acesso ao ensino religioso. Ensino religioso é ensino ministrado por professores confessionais, observada a pluralidade confessional do País.

Não me excedo, por certo, ao insistir em que a Constituição torna obrigatório o ensino confessional, que, não obstante, será facultativo. A formação humana se completa na formação religiosa por livre opção dos pais. A liberdade de escolher é plena: filhos a cujos pais espiritualidade e religião nada significam não frequentarão a disciplina; aos demais o acesso a ela é assegurado pelo Estado. Insisto, sim, em que a liberdade de ensino confessional é aqui, em todos os sentidos, ampla.

A ação promovida pela Procuradoria-Geral da República é não apenas um panfleto anticlerical. Agride a própria liberdade, além de pressupor que um preceito da Constituição – o parágrafo 1.º do artigo 210 – seja inconstitucional…