Senate approves Public Security amendment with no votes against; text heads to promulgation

Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.

The Senate approved the Public Security constitutional amendment (PEC) on Tuesday (3), in two rounds, according to g1. The text does not need to return to the Chamber of Deputies and now goes to promulgation. There were 73 votes in favor in the first round and 75 in the second, with no votes against. To pass, a PEC needs at least 49 votes in favor.

The vote had been postponed because of a standoff over lowering the age of criminal responsibility. At the start of the session, the floor decided to vote on the proposal without considering two amendments, one from the PL and one from the PT, that dealt with the topic. The PL's suggestion was to lower the age to 16 for less serious crimes and to 14 for heinous ones; the PT's was to lower it to 16 only for heinous crimes.

The amendment is a government priority and writes the Unified Public Security System into the Constitution. It also provides for the creation of municipal police forces for visible and community policing and expands the role of the Federal Highway Police on waterways and railways. The Federal Police and the Federal Highway Police remain under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government.

The text gives the federal government more power against criminal organizations, expands cooperation among the federal government, states and municipalities, and requires gang leaders to serve their sentences in maximum-security prisons. The government intends to create a permanent Ministry of Public Security, which could not be abolished by presidential decree.

According to g1, the approval is the first test for the Lula government in Congress since his reelection.