February 8, 2023

11:02

Mencius Melo – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The senator for Amazonas, Plínio Valério (PSDB), He used social networks to communicate that visited, on Tuesday, 7, the Amazonians arrested in Brasilia for participating in terrorist acts of the day 8 January. On occasion, a crowd formed by supporters of former President Bolsonaro advanced and destroyed the buildings of the Supreme Court (STF), National Congress and Alvorada Palace. In a video, Pliny says he is there not to fulfill the role of senator, but, “of a Christian who has to be in solidarity with those who are being wronged,” he declared.

“Of those five men I talked to and the two women, none of them have the profile of a terrorist or bandit,” Valério posted, describing the detainees in a mild manner. According to Law 14.197/2021, of the Brazilian Penal Code, it is a crime to “attempt, with the use of violence or serious threat, to abolish the democratic rule of law, preventing or restricting the exercise of constitutional powers,” with a prison sentence of four to eight years, in addition to the penalty corresponding to the violence.

Also in the post, the senator declared that the Amazonians “don’t even have a police record, and we have to help these people,” he said. Then, the senator makes a self-criticism: “Is it a senator’s role? No. But it is the role of a Christian. Of a person who has to be in solidarity with those who are being wronged”, he pointed out.

Valério also reports that he was accompanied by lawyers to try to somehow “see what he does” for the prisoners. “We have already been in Papuda and talked to five men from Amazonas, and now we are leaving here in the Hive, where we talked to two Amazonas ladies who are prisoners. We brought lawyers and we are going to see what they do for our countrymen”, he declared. Then he reports on the treatment: “It’s the jail treatment. It is the normal treatment and they are being treated well”, he observed.

Criticism

Sociologist and professor of the Department of Social Sciences at the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam) Marcelo Seráfico criticized the senator’s posture. “First, the senator is a legislator and should, first of all, respect the laws and legal processes that, by complying with them, seek to promote Justice,” recommended Seráfico who continued his observations. “According to your alleged Christianity is no alibi for connivance with people who are being accused of committing serious crimes to democracy”, he rebuked.

Marcelo also called attention to the contradictions and clashes of speech and practice of Senator Pliny Valerius, especially with regard to the precepts of faith, religiosity, and politics. “Finally, acting invested of the office, but alleging religious motives, seems a way of disrespecting both the democratic republican institutions and the religions of Christian matrix”, he evaluated.

Solidarity

This is not the first time that Plínio Valério has shown solidarity with the extreme right. He voted against the federal intervention, in Brasilia, after the terrorist acts of January 8 and stood in solidarity with the coup plotters arrested at the headquarters of the National Police Academy (ANP):

“I abhor acts of violence, but I am against the persecution of innocent people who are without water and food,” he declared at the time. The first-term senator, Plinio Valério (PSDB), has been notable for a controversial agenda. He voted against the Transition PEC because, according to him: “PT wants to swim in money.”

Days before the riots in Brasília, provoked by the “innocents”, the parliamentarian from Amazonas went public to ask for the impeachment of the ministers of the Supreme Court (STF). On the occasion, he gave a word of strength to the right-wing extremists camped out at the doors of the barracks: “You cannot lose heart”. And they did not fade until they destroyed the headquarters of the Supreme Court, the National Congress and the Alvorada Palace.