In defense of Alexandre de Moraes, the Federal Supreme Court, democracy, and national sovereignty

PN #77

The Arns Commission repudiates Donald Trump's decision to impose personal economic sanctions on Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Through this public note, we join hands with entities and personalities of different political orientations, as well as collegiate bodies such as our Supreme Court and media outlets of different colors, which have already expressed the very same protests. We cannot remain silent in the face of the offense perpetrated by the current occupant of the White House against the dignity of our people.

An offense, in fact, beyond words. After arbitrarily revoking the visas of most of the STF Justices and unleashing a barrage of threats to impose absurd tariffs on Brazilian products in the United States, the Trump administration has repeated its affront by imposing economic sanctions on one of the members of the court, Justice Alexandre de Moraes. And what is the motivation behind all this? To pressure Brazilian judiciary to halt the ongoing criminal proceedings against defendants accused of attempted coup d'état.

This is what we read in documents signed by the President of the United States. This is what we hear in statements made by his direct advisors. None of these infamous measures were justified on commercial grounds or on the basis of balancing foreign exchange flows. Such reasons, after all, do not exist. The only clear allegation boils down to the explicit intent to free the defendant Jair Bolsonaro and his accomplices from the fair and formally impeccable legal action to which they are responding, under the strict terms of the law, with their right to defense fully guaranteed.

The situation we face is doubly unacceptable. Firstly, the content of the measures, in addition to being outrageous, undermines the good relations between the countries and is unprecedented in the diplomatic ties that have guided their understanding. Secondly, and more seriously, the justifications for such arbitrariness are even worse: they demonstrate total disregard for the constitutional principle of independence between the branches of government that prevails in Brazil and in all democratic states.

Finally – and, for the Arns Commission, this point deserves the utmost attention from Brazilian citizens – it is necessary to highlight the inversions that are concentrated here. The legal basis for the arbitrariness committed against Justice Alexandre de Moraes is the Magnitsky Act. Well, this law, created in 2016 to impose sanctions on dictators who violated human rights, is now being perverted and corrupted to lend itself to the unfounded persecution of a magistrate who is fulfilling his legal function in judging acts that did, in fact, violate human rights in Brazil.

No statesman would ever resort to such absurd expedient of using the Magnitsky Act to interfere in due process conducted, with constitutional independence, by the judiciary of a sovereign country. In Donald Trump's repertoire, however, this absurd expedient becomes a solution of state.

We live in a time when foundations of civilization are being turned upside down. In the United States itself, a government that came to power thanks to the electoral mechanisms guaranteed by democracy never tires of attacking democracy. Its allies around the world use the same formula: they use democratic freedoms to then stifle democratic freedoms. That the Magnitsky Act is now being turned into a weapon against human rights does not surprise us, but it should put us on high alert.

Let us move forward in national unity. It is time to fight for reason, sanity, responsibility, and the prevalence of civilization. We offer our full support to Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court, democracy, and national sovereignty. It is time to defend human rights. Our people will know how to strengthen the fundamental rights of every Brazilian and will not tolerate any external interference.