Military regime: Notoriously repressive AI-5 decree turns 55
Institutional Act 5, commonly referred to in Portuguese as AI-5, the most repressive legal instrument in the period of Brazil’s military dictatorship, came into force 55 years ago. Decreed by General Costa e Silva on December 13, 1968, it came as a response to protests by the student movement against the regime.
The document authorized the president to suspend the activities of the National Congress and revoke the mandates of its members, as well as removing the political rights of any Brazilian citizen and confiscating assets deemed unlawful. It also barred courts from ruling on any presidential act.
According to historian and political scientist Professor Francisco Carlos Teixeira, the aim of AI-5 was to consolidate the dictatorship by overriding the influence of other powers.
“One of the key aspects of AI-5 was that it did not recognize the independence of the branches of power. The idea of three harmonious branches working together was suppressed. In particular, the measures taken against the judiciary, which was considered a hindrance to the consolidation of the military dictatorship, were violent,” said Teixeira, who is a professor at the federal universities of Rio de Janeiro and Juiz de Fora and a researcher at the Army Command and Staff School and the War College.
Another factor with serious consequences during the so-called years of lead was the invalidation of habeas corpus, a mechanism used to this day to guarantee the freedom of people accused of a crime.
The National Truth Commission concluded that 50 thousand people were arrested in 1964 alone, the year of the military coup, with a substantial number of them being tortured. The commission also identified at least 434 people who disappeared or were killed by the dictatorial forces.
Attempted coups
Despite being repealed in 1978, AI-5 is not a thing of the past, the professor argued. In his view, the unfolding of the attempted coup that took place in the country late last year and at the beginning of this year proves that this nostalgic sentiment is not just in the realm of ideas.
“Since 2014, a series of historical actors have felt nostalgic for the AI-5. This was not just theoretical musings and aspirations. The two drafts for a coup—one discovered with then Minister of Justice Anderson Torres, another on the cellphone of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid—have the exact same characteristics of AI-5 in establishing a commission that was to legislate in place of Congress and suppress judges of the Superior Electoral Court and the Supreme Court, including arrests, something that was done several times while AI-5 was in force,” the expert pointed out.
