PT senator Fabiano Contarato, elected to chair the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on Organized Crime, argued that it is necessary to change the “stigma” that the “progressive camp” only defends the human rights of prisoners.
“Human rights is very broad. But, for a long time, there was this stigma that we defend people who violated any criminal scope. That’s what has to be changed,” he said.
Civil Police Delegate for 27 years in Espírito Santo, the president of the CPI installed this week in the Senate spoke exclusively to Agência Brasil.
Senator Fabiano Contarato is president of the Organized Crime CPI, installed in the Senate this week – Photo: Lula Marques/Agência Brasil
The parliamentarian defends the toughening of sentences for teenagers in conflict with the law, criticizes the temporary release of prisoners convicted of crimes against life, sees no problem in equating factions with terrorism and believes that the “progressive camp” cannot romanticize the issue of public security.
“It is past time – and this is public and well-known – for the progressive camp to start speaking responsibly, with their feet on the ground and without romanticizing this area, to provide a response to society,” he stated.
Elected senator in 2018 for the Rede party, Contarato joined the PT in 2022 and has worked on issues related to public security. He said he will work to prevent the commission from being dominated by electoral disputes.
Check out the full interview below:
Brazil Agency: How do you intend to prevent, as president, the CPI from being captured by an electoral dispute, between government and opposition, instead of developing proposals to combat organized crime?
Fabiano Contarato: I am fully convinced that both I, as president, and Senator Alessandro Vieira [o relator]both former Civil Police officers as police chiefs, as well as the vice-president of the CPI, who is Senator Hamilton Mourão, we want to focus this work in a more technical way, in a more objective way and without pyrotechnics, without allowing ourselves to be led into more ideological and partisan behavior.
It is legitimate for a parliamentarian to want to use this CPI for this purpose. [disputa político-eleitoral]but whatever I can do to avoid this type of behavior, I have no doubt that I will do so.
It is also important to highlight that here in the Senate this relationship between colleagues is very respectful. We have to have the responsibility to provide an answer to the population without allowing ourselves to be contaminated by this political party or electoral bias.
We have to make this CPI a positive result in defense of what is elementary, which is public security as a right for everyone and a duty of the State.
Brazil Agency: The political-ideological positions between the government and opposition are very divergent in relation to the issue of public security. Is it possible to find some convergence in the CPI to build a common proposal?
Contact: I accepted to be president of this commission with the prerequisite of not renouncing my convictions. I spent 27 years working in public security. I have been teaching law and criminal procedure subjects since 1999.
It is past time – and this is public and well-known – for the progressive camp to start speaking responsibly, with their feet on the ground and without romanticizing this area, to provide a response to society.
Public security should not be treated with an exclusive agenda from the right or the conservative camp. We have to understand that public security is an agenda for all political parties, regardless of party collaboration.
I was leader of the PT in the Senate when it was assessed whether or not to maintain the veto of the so-called exit, which is the temporary release of prisoners. I argued that intentional homicide by shooting a firearm, which carries a sentence of six to 20 years in prison, tends to result in a minimum sentence, but let’s assume that it is not a six-year sentence, but a nine-year sentence.
With one-sixth of the sentence, the person responsible for that homicide involving gunshots is now out in open custody. Will a convict who violated the main legal interest still be given 35 days of temporary release? It’s not reasonable.
You need to put yourself in the shoes of that mother who lost her son to a gunshot. If the person was sentenced to nine years in prison, he will not spend even one year and eight months in prison.
At the time of this vote, I was leader of the PT and I said that, if that happened, I could not renounce my convictions and would vote to overturn the veto. And that’s what happened.
Senator Fabiano Contarato says he will work to prevent the CPI from being contaminated by electoral disputes – Photo: Lula Marques/Agência Brasil
Brazil Agency: You were also rapporteur for Bill (PL) 1,473/2025, which increases the minimum sentence for teenagers in conflict with the law who commit serious violations.
Contact: In Espírito Santo, a 16-year-old boy, using his father’s gun, who was a military police officer, entered a school shooting and killed four people – a student and three teachers. It left dozens injured. Now, in November, he will complete three years of hospitalization and will be released. It’s not reasonable.
Brazil is the most permissive within the G20. The most permissive. And look, I’m talking about great democracies.
So, I increased the period of internment from three to five years if he commits an infraction involving violence, a serious threat, equivalent to [crime] heinous crime or drug trafficking, this period can reach ten years. It has already been approved here in a final decision, it is in the Chamber.
Brazil Agency: How does the progressive field fail to respond to society in the area of public security?
Contact: Why has the progressive camp been labeled that we defend human rights only for the population that is restricted of your freedom to come and go? We have to rethink this.
Human rights are all the rights that a person has, regardless of race, color, ethnicity, religion, origin, sexual orientation. Human rights is also to protect the victims of police officers who are shot in the confrontation there in Complexo do Alemão, for example.
Human rights are also to serve the orphans of femicides, which Brazil kills the most, which is to serve the victims of sexual violence.
Human rights is [um conceito] very broad. But, for a long time, there was this stigma that we defended, in quotation marks, people who violated any criminal scope. That’s what has to be changed.
I also approved the project here in the Senate, transforming active and passive corruption, embezzlement, crimes against authority, against the financial system into heinous crimes.
Because when a politician diverts funds from healthcare, he kills millions of people. When a politician diverts funds from education, he kills millions of young people. See how many good things we can give purposefully, without allowing ourselves to be contaminated by this thing that we are right-wing, because we are conservative.
I’ll say it again: public safety, that’s not me saying it, it’s in Article 144 [da Constituição]is everyone’s right and the duty of the State.
Brazil Agency: The opposition wants to equate criminal factions with terrorism. Experts point out that the measure paves the way for interventions by the United States Here in Brazil, how do you evaluate this topic?
Contact: I do not see this possibility of another country intervening in our democracy because our democracy is solid, it is strong, the institutions are firm. The Executive, President Lula’s government, strengthens institutions. We have harmony, autonomy and independence from the Powers.
We approved here, in 2023, the amendment to the Terrorism Law [PL 3.283/2021] and it is also in the Chamber of Deputies, equating to acts of terrorism the conduct carried out, for any reason, with the purpose of causing widespread social terror, in the name or favor of a terrorist organization or organized criminal group, which lists seven hypotheses.
This has already been approved and is a response that Parliament can now give. I don’t see this concern that if you make any changes to the Terrorism Act, it will legitimize another country, like the United States, to come here.
No, we have to respond to what the population is feeling, and the poorest population is the one who suffers. It’s easy for me because I’m a man, white, in a suit, who has public healthcare, who has adequate food, who has health insurance.
But we have to put ourselves in the shoes of that woman who is there on the hill, in Complexo do Alemão, and who has to pay to have her little shop, who has to pay to have water, who has to pay to enter the community, who has to pay to live being subjugated, because, when the State is not present, fear sets in, and then barbarity imposes itself.
