Congress responds to waves of protests and rejects PEC 37

Criado em 26/06/13 09h04 e atualizado em 26/06/13 09h09
Por Iolando Lourenço and Ivan Richard Edição:s Fonte:Agencia Brasil

Brasilia – The pressure from the waves of protests (“manifestações populares”) that have sweep across the country for weeks has made itself felt in Congress. A constitutional amendment (“PEC 37”) that would have limited the powers of federal prosecutors (“Ministério Público”) to investigate cases was defeated yesterday (June 25) in the Chamber of Deputies.

The PEC 37 had been approved in two committees (“Comissão de Constituição e Justiça and a special committee) and appeared to have favorable headwinds until the protests began. They changed everthing. The vote was 430 against, with only 9 in favor and 2 abstentions.

Rejection of PEC 37 has been one of the main demands of the recent protest demonstrations, with protesters calling it the “impunity amendment.” It would have restricted criminal investigations to the Federal and Civil Police. Most people consider the federal prosecutors more independent, although they are also federal employees.

Interestingly, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Henrique Eduardo Alves, made an appeal for PEC 37 to be rejected unanimously as a demonstration that the members were in tune with the population. However, deputy Lourival Mendes, the author of the amendment, insisted on making a speech defending it and then voting for it – along with eight others.

Editors: Aecio Amado / Nira Foster
Translator: Allen Bennett