Senate Approves Constitutional Overhaul of Brazil’s Security System

Overview

• The Senate voted to approve the PEC da Segurança Pública in both turns, with recorded tallies of 73 votes in the first round and 75 in the second, and the text will be promulgated by Congress.
• The amendment constitutionalizes the Sistema Único de Segurança Pública (SUSP) to formalize federal, state and municipal cooperation on joint operations, information sharing and integrated forces.
• The PEC creates mandatory funding rules that require 50% repasses from the Fundo Nacional de Segurança Pública and the Fundo Penitenciário Nacional to states and the Federal District and allocates 10% of the Fundo Social pré‑sal superávit to security funds, while a proposed bets revenue clause was removed by the relator.
• The text imposes stricter penalties and special prison regimes for leaders and members of facções, milícias and paramilitary groups, including required confinement in maximum‑security units and limits on progressão de regime.
• Proposals to lower the age of criminal responsibility were excluded from the approved PEC after a 38–36 vote to split those emendas into separate constitutional proposals, a move that preserves passage of the security text but keeps the maioridade penal debate active and legally contested.