Daniel Silveira

Daniel Lucio da Silveira (born 25 November 1982) is a former Rio de Janeiro Military Police officer and Brazilian politician, previously affiliated with the PSL, UNIÃO, and PTB parties. He was a federal deputy for the state of Rio de Janeiro from 2019 to 2023.

Silveira was arrested on 16 February 2021 after publishing a video defending the extra-legal military act AI-5 and insulting and threatening ministers of the Federal Supreme Court.

Career
Daniel Silveira was born in Petrópolis, Brazil, on 25 November 1982. While working as a bus conductor between 23 December 2006 and 17 January 2007, he obtained false certificates to justify work absences and was later prosecuted for fraud. Shortly thereafter, he took the exam to join the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State, but due to the prior fraud allegations, Silveira was rejected in 2011. In 2012, he was allowed to join the police force after appealing in court, and in 2016 the fraud charges expired and the case was closed.

Silveira worked for Rio de Janeiro's military police between 2012 and 2018. While serving as an officer policing a protest against Jair Bolsonaro, he once stated he would like to shoot a demonstrator in the chest. His police record indicated further malpractice, with Silveira receiving 60 disciplinary sanctions, 14 reprimands and two warnings during his service, in addition to spending 26 days in prison and 54 in detention. A later police report considered him unsuitable for service in the military police. During his time as a police officer, he studied law at the Estácio de Sá University and completed his program in 2019. He is also a teacher of muay thai and self-defense.

He was elected in the 2018 elections as a federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro for the 56th legislature of the Chamber of Deputies, through the PSL, with 31,789 votes (0.41% of all valid votes).

Silveira became a notable figure prior to the 2018 elections due to a viral video on social media which showed Silveira and fellow candidate Rodrigo Amorim dismantling a plaque honoring Marielle Franco, a councilwoman murdered on 14 March 2018 in Rio de Janeiro. Silveira defended himself, claiming that the he helped remove the plaque because it covered signs for Praça Floriano Peixoto square, and because he wanted to send a message to criminals and gang members that they could not take over territory through ostentatious vandalism.

During sessions of Congress, Silveira voted in favor of the following notable bills and agendas: MP 867 (which, according to environmentalists, would amend the Forest Code and provide amnesty for deforesters); MP 910 (known as MP da Grilagem); PL 3723, which regulates hunting; the New Sanitation Legal Framework; church debt amnesty; Sergio Moro's "Anti-Crime Package"; Social Security Reform PEC; the freezing of public servants' salaries; and the convening of an Inter-American Convention Against Racism.

Silveira voted against the following proposals: the further criminalization of dam destruction; the exemption of teachers from new pension reforms; increases in the Party Fund; and alterations or decreases in the Electoral Fund.

During the floor vote regarding the FUNDEB funds supporting basic education, Silveira was absent for the first vote, and voted against the fund going only to public education in the second vote.

In February 2021, after his arrest was decreed by the Federal Supreme Court and confirmed by the Chamber of Deputies, Silveira left the PSL and joined the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB). He signed his party membership card from inside prison alongside the party's president, Roberto Jefferson.

Pedro II School
On 11 October 2019, Rodrigo Amorim and Daniel Silveira, both members of the PSL, went to the university Colégio Pedro II in São Cristóvão to conduct an inspection for their "Education Crusade". Oscar Halac, the dean of the institution, tried to prevent the entrance of the parliamentarians because they lacked proper authorization. Halac later said the incident demonstrated the two parliamentarians' lack of knowledge surrounding the institution's entry and exit rules. The dean also questioned Amorim and Silveira's motives, claiming their actions were driven by political interests. The dean reported the event to the Federal Police, asking them to investigate into potential abuses of authority by the parliamentarians. Rodrigo Amorim said that the "Education Crusade" had no "ideological scope" and claimed to have found evidence "strong indoctrination" in the places he visited. On 18 October 2019, the newspaper O Globo reported that the board of Colégio Pedro II filed an incident report with the Federal Police. Later that same month, it was announced that Daniel Silveira would have to respond to the case at the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

Journalist assault
In October 2019, Daniel Silveira was recorded on video antagonizing journalist Guga Noblat. Silveira threw the journalist's cell phone on the floor, saying: "I threw it. What's up, brother? I hit you, asshole. Go to the STF [Supreme Court] and sue me. You're an asshole, boy."

The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) later released a note criticizing the deputy's actions, stressing that they were not an isolated case. As evidence, they pointed to an incident on 20 September 2019, when Silveira amplified pieces of misinformation about the magazine AzMina online and criticized the work of its journalists. Abraji expressed solidarity with Guga Noblat and condemned Silveira's actions. The association also urged the Chamber of Deputies to take steps to determine whether a breach of parliamentary decorum occurred and, if so, to apply appropriate sanctions.

PL on victims of Communism in Brazil
In October 2019, Daniel Silveira filed a Bill (PL) aiming to institute a National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Communism in Brazil. The deputy did not mention exact specifics surrounding "genocides" in the country. He also proposed the creation of campaigns that would "make Brazilians aware" of the "communist threat". Political scientist Eduardo Grin, of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), called the PSL deputy's proposal "absurd" and denied the politician's claims about communism's history.

Threats to the STF and TSE
In November 2019, after a Federal Supreme Court (STF) ruling annulled the arrest of former Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Daniel Silveira posted on Twitter: "If you need a corporal, I am available". His post referenced a prior statement by Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP), who said during his political campaign in 2018: "If you want to close the STF, do you know what you do? You don't even send a Jeep. Send a soldier and a corporal (…) Take the power of the pen from the hand of an STF minister, what is he on the street?"

According to an investigation by Aos Fatos in May 2020 on fake news, Daniel Silveira and a group of seven deputies published an average of two social network posts per day that contained misinformation or criticism targeting the STF, throughout a three-month period.

In December 2020, Silveira again threatened the STF in addition to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) by defending the printed vote: "The printed vote will happen, or else the STF and the Electoral Justice will no longer exist, because we will not allow it". The deputy called the STF ministers 'marginals', and referred to Luís Roberto Barroso, the president of the TSE, as a "kid".

Prison sentences and releases from jail
On 16 February 2021, Daniel Silveira was arrested by the Federal Police after publishing a video defending the extra-legal military act AI-5 and insulting and threatening ministers of the Federal Supreme Court. The arrest warrant was issued by Minister Alexandre de Moraes. The following day, a STF plenary session voted unanimously, 11-0, to keep the congressman in prison.

On 19 February, the Chamber of Deputies decided to maintain Silveira's prison sentence in a 364-130 vote. Silveira left prison on 14 March 2021, intending to serve the remainder of his sentence at home while being monitored via an electronic anklet. However, on June 24, he was arrested again for repeated violations of the terms of his house arrest. He was released in November of 2021.