Indigenous people have special protections under Brazilian law. That was the case at least until Dec. 12, when an indigenous leader was arrested by order of Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Court of Brazil.
On the night of Dec. 13, Moraes was denounced before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for violating several articles of the Pact of San José of Costa Rica with the arrest of Serere.
The complaint, signed by the Latin American Journalism Council, requests, as a matter of urgency, a precautionary measure for the International Court to make a recommendation for the immediate release of the indigenous leader because, according to Law 6001/73, Brazilian Indians are considered unimputable.
There are numerous other arbitrary arrests happening across the country. The Brazilian judiciary has now moved on to a new phase, and the federal police keep carrying out the arrests of people on political grounds.
Rights Guaranteed by Law
Freedom of speech is protected by Article 5, IV, of the Brazilian Constitution, which provides that “the manifestation of thought is free and protected.”This right is further guaranteed under Article 5, IX, according to which every expression of intellectual, artistic, and scientific communication is “free and immune to censorship or license.”
What’s more, free speech is also guaranteed through Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights, which became Brazilian law through Federal Decree No. 678 of 1992.
Apparently, however, nobody in Brazil has been allowed to question the result of the recent presidential election. Whoever dares to do so runs the risk of being immediately arrested and prosecuted.
Amid allegations of massive electoral fraud, Brazilians have been protesting by the millions in hundreds of cities nationwide. These apparently are the biggest mass protests ever in human history.
Judicial Overreach
Moraes was appointed as president of the nation’s top electoral court in August. Prior to that, in April 2005, he was appointed by President Lula da Silva to join the first composition (biennium 2005–2007) of the National Council of Justice.From 2002 to 2005, he served as the secretary of justice and defense of citizenship of São Paulo state under the then Gov. Geraldo Alckmin, the candidate for vice president on Lula da Silva’s presidential ticket.
In addition to sending some of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters to jail, Moraes also ordered the confiscation of their electronic devices and the freezing of their personal bank accounts.
Another example, on March 18, Moraes ordered the nationwide suspension of Telegram.
Bolsonaro, who sought reelection, relied on this messaging app to reach his voter base. He has more than 1 million followers on the platform, and this proved crucial to his electoral campaign.
The ruling came after Telegram ignored an earlier order to block the account of Allan dos Santos, a supporter of Bolsonaro accused of spreading “misinformation.”
After knowing all these extraordinary things, who would dare say that these presidential elections in Brazil were fair or transparent? Certainly not the millions of Brazilians turning out to protest against the lack of transparency in this electoral process.