Brazil’s Moro Delivers New Anti-Crime Bill to Congress

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, signed on Tuesday (February 19th), the country’s anti-crime bill. Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sergio Moro, responsible for the text, said that the bill shows that the government will not give in to crime.

“The project does not solve all the problems, but it is an important to move in the right direction; to start a virtuous cycle that we hope will progressively reduce those problems (corruption, organized crime),” said the minister.

During his speech at the signing ceremony, the minister recalled that the proposal was a campaign promise by then-candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, and that even if the text deals with specific measures, it will be enough to combat corruption, organized crime and violent crime.

“The government’s understanding is that these three problems are related. Organized crime is a factor that increases violent crime. Corruption depletes resources and the effectiveness of public policies aimed at organized crime and violent crime,” he stated.

The anti-crime bill provides for changes in fourteen laws, including Brazil’s Criminal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Criminal Execution Law, Hedonic Crimes Act, and Electoral Code.

Among the actions to be implemented by the bill is the increase of penalties for firearm crimes and the improvement of mechanisms that makes it possible to confiscate proceeds of crime.

Minister Moro, is due to go to the National Congress during the afternoon to personally deliver the project to lawmakers. The bill to combat crime should be discussed by Congressional representatives in parallel with the proposed social security reform, also due to be presented to the legislative branch this week.