The Institute for Socioeconomic Studies publicly states its position on the political moment we are living in. We support all kinds of investigation on corruption within the constitutional limits. However, the theme of “corruption” is a strategy that the elites have always used to usurp public resources. Every investigation must respect the constitutional principles, including that all are equal before the law. Selecting those for investigation and the systematic selective leaks that have been cunningly used mainly by Rede Globo to inflate a social upheaval, means using the legal system within particular interests or political groups and mass media, which is not compliant with a basic rule of democracy: the respect for popular sovereignty expressed in the elections.

We cannot accept the use of the Car Wash Operation for political and partisan purposes. We expect the Operation to investigate all those cited and not just a few ones. We cannot accept the use of questionable methods, such as coercive imprisonment/bench warrant as a strategy for plea agreements and the umbilical link between the operation and the large media. Just as we reject the coercive conduction of former President Lula and the disclosure of the wiretapping including President Dilma, we denounce this as a common practice used by the security apparatus of the Government on the outskirts of cities, especially in relation to the black population. Invading "shacks" and privacy, and taking suspects for interrogation without a mandate are part of the daily life of this population.

We believe that the current Government has adopted a wrong model of development that deepened the dependence and the subordinated insertion of our country into the world economy, making us even more vulnerable and susceptible to the global economic crisis. It has also generated and generates successive human rights violations, mostly of indigenous people, young black men, women and the LGBT population. We also believe that the Dilma Government, by erroneously prioritizing high interest rates and budget cuts as a measure to leave the installed fiscal and economic crisis, produced perverse effects in the Brazilian lives, and in particular the poorest, who are still the vast majority in this unequal country, further weakening our public policies. On top of this, the lack of dialogue with the social organizations and movements, a characteristic of the current federal management, contributed to deepen the political crisis that we are living in Brazil now.

But we also believe that the roots of displeasure by the Brazilian elite lie in a profound contempt and disregard for this or any Government that wants to produce changes that put in check their political, economic and cultural power and historical privileges. An elite that is super represented in Congress and the mainstream media and combined with the ideology segments of the symptomatically system of Justice and the Federal Police.

Therefore, we reject any legal or institutional acts that do not follow the rites of legality; we also reject all manifestations pro-dictatorship against conquered rights and acts of violence that we have seen continuously since March 13.

We believe in the urgent need for a profound reform of the political system in all instances of power. We want an end to the influence of economic power in the Government, the democratization of the justice system and the democratic regulation of the media, which has been acting as a fourth power in this crisis scenario, misleading the population and encouraging a social convulsion to open space for coups and fascist solutions, which may lead to barbarism.

We cannot retreat on democracy that we conquered with a lot of struggle, pain and death. We need to move forward, grow up and radicalize our democracy, and for that, it is essential to build a democracy with people, not just a formal democracy. As a non-profit non-governmental organization that is autonomous and above parties, Inesc will continue acting to strengthen the popular field and public transparency against corruption and ensure of the rights of all. We will continue, now and always, attached to movements and civil society organizations to defend our democracy and our rights as a people.

We are in 2016, not 1964. The fight against corruption cannot be an excuse for the Government of exception that we are living. Inesc served in the design of our Constitution of 1988 and we stand against the coup and in defense of democracy.

Team Inesc

Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos

http://www.inesc.org.br/news/2016/march/on-behalf-of-legality-democracy-...