“My dismissal was an act of political persecution”: interview with anti-fascist policeman Áureo Cisneiros

Former President of the Civil Police Union of Pernambuco (SINPOL), Police Commissioner and candidate for electoral positions by PSOL, Áureo Cisneiros was dismissed from the state through an official statement published in the State Gazette. In an interview with Fato Pernambuco, Áureo explains how the resignation was, what the motivations were for it, and spoke about the importance of union freedom and the defense of the democratic rule of law. Check it out:

Brasil de Fato: Áureo, how do you observe your dismissal from the Civil Police by the Government of the State of Pernambuco?

Áureo Cisneiros: My firing was undoubtedly an act of political persecution by the PSB government, by Governor Paulo Câmara. Since the redemocratization no unionist in the state of Pernambuco has been fired. All the lawsuits that the government of Pernambuco brought against me were lawsuits for union activity, because I went on strike, paralyzed, criticized the Pact for Life. I do what the unionist has to do, claim, make criticisms and point out that there was a deficiency in public safety. We have an antiquated model of public security, which has no political project for social issues. The Pact for Life project is very repressive.

All this repression has not contained violence, it has only increased and continues to increase. And there is no appreciation of public security workers, we have here one of the worst salaries in Brazil for policemen, in the police stations, for example, the working environment is very bad, there is even a lack of water to drink. In the face of this situation, every criticism I made was an administrative process, this persecution by the PSB government here in Pernambuco against the civil police union is absurd. It was not only me who received the administrative process, there were 50 administrative processes in the entire executive board of Sinpol. There were six directors who took more than 50 administrative proceedings, just me, 18.

BdF: As a former union president, the legislation guarantees the stability of the professional who is president of a union entity, including a certain period after the administration. How does the State Government’s decision interfere with this?

Áureo: Yes, we have immunity guaranteed by law that even establishes the removal of police functions to assume the class mandate in the union. There are six directors, out of the 27 who are elected, who are working into the union. But they don’t respect and have passed over the legislation. It was an act against union freedom here in Pernambuco in a government that calls itself leftist, when not even the governments of the right did this

BdF: What would have been the motivation for your dismissal?

Áureo: We appealed the decision of resignation because it was authoritarian and arbitrary. We filed a motion for a writ of security and we are hoping that the justice of Pernambuco will do justice in this case, that these attacks on union freedom here in Pernambuco will cease, because today it is me and tomorrow it will be anyone who claims for their category. This is an affront to the democratic rule of law.

BdF: What measures are being taken in this regard?

Áureo: We are making political mobilizations to clarify the population. On the 11th we had an act and important personalities participated here in Pernambuco, like the former federal deputy and today professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Paulo Rubens Santiago; Marília Arraes, of the PT, who was recently a candidate for mayor; UFPE professor Michel Zaidan; the co-deputtes Juntas; the most voted councilwoman in Recife Dani Portela; the central unions, several unions. All of them committed exactly for the government to cease these acts against union freedom in Pernambuco and we will have more mobilizations. On the 18th, we will concentrate in front of the police chief, we will have representatives of police unions from all over Brazil, and we will make an Assembly in front of the headquarters of the Pernambuco government to demand an end to the persecution. The dismissal of Áureo Cisneiros means a persecution of the Pernambuco union.