Activists from Brazil have called for a national protest this Sunday "in defense of the Lava Jato operation"

Activist groups and movements that have been protesting against corruption in the Workers Party (PT) in the past few years and in favor of the dismissal of Dilma Roussef have called for a new street demonstration on Sunday in defense of the Lava-Jato investigation and against the maneuver taken by the Federal Supreme Court last Thursday.

At the national level, the event will be followed by members of the Movimiento Brasil Libre and the Vem Pra Rua group (We go to the street, in Portuguese).

The organizers have published on social networks an image with the opening hours of meetings in different cities of Brazil. On Avenida Paulista, the congregation will begin at 14:00 local time, in front of the famous São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP).

The Federal Supreme Court of Brazil decided on Thursday that, when a case of corruption involves irregularities in political campaigns, competition would be played by electoral justice, which has sowed doubts about the future of the operation Lava Jato, who will be five years old this Sunday.

The biggest action against corruption in Brazil, which even discovered similar parcels in a dozen countries in Latin America and parts of Africa, it relied mainly on the predominance of criminal justice over the electoral process while the detours of the money also financed political campaigns.

This court sentence, however, was changed on Thursday by the Supremethat, in a judgment on competitions, it was decided that, if a complaint concerned problems of corruption and, at the same time, electoral fraud, will be treated by the electoral justice, considered juridically as "softer" than the criminal.

The controversial decision was made in a close vote (6-5) which revealed the discord that exists between the eleven members of the Supreme, that in Brazil acts as a constitutional court.

The very narrow majority supported the position of the instructor of the process, Marco Aurelio Mello, who pointed out the "tenuous" line that separates practice from "box B", which is to hide resources obtained for a campaign , an obvious crime of corruption

Mello, as well as five other magistrates, felt that, if it was an election-related crime, the case should be tried first by the electoral justice, specialized in these issues and "ready" also to pronounce criminal penalties.

Among those who opposed the decision was the President of the Court Electoral superior, Rosa Weber, also a member of the Supreme Court, insisted on the "extraordinary competence" of this body, but admitted that "this body is specialized in areas other than the criminal sphere".

Judge Luis Barroso, who also voted against the majority's decision, lamented that "paradigms are changing in a country devastated by corruption", while "real progress is finally made against this scourge".

The decision adopted by the court The Minister of Justice, Sergio Moro, who until last year was responsible for the development of Operation Lava Jato, had already rejected this idea. He had judged and condemned influential politicians, such as former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

"If we check the statistics of criminal convictions in electoral justice, we will probably not find very happy numbers, not because there are no crimes, but because this system is centered. on the organization of elections and the resolution of controversies around the elections "said Moro this week.

The minister said that "it would be more practical to separate electoral processes from common trials, such as corruption," as he proposed in a constitutional amendment bill that 39, he sent to Congress to try to "pacify" the dissensions the subject.

The Attorney General, Raquel Dodge, who asked the court that the charges were separated with respect to ordinary crimes and electoral crimes, considered that the Supreme "This is not a risk" for Lava Jato "right now". Nevertheless, he badured that the prosecution would be "attentive" to the "next steps" and that it would maintain "the focus on the fight against corruption and impunity".

The controversial issue has aroused in recent days lively discussions in the press and social networks, during which magistrates of the Supreme In the end, the decision-makers were insulted and even labeled corrupt.

Without specifying whether it is expressly referred to, the Supreme Court announced Thursday that it had opened a criminal investigation into "false news", "slanders" and "offenses" directed against the court and its members, who will treat in the greatest secrecy.