Two petitions requesting for the Copa América to be postponed were rejected by a vast majority of Supreme Court justices, ensuring the event’s continuation in the country, which is expected to begin on the 13th.
In the STF’s virtual plenary, where ministers present online, the subject was discussed.
The reporteur for both measures is Minister Carmen Lucia. Carmen’s decision to decline the two requests owing to procedural reasons was approved by the majority of ministers.
“The intense movement of visitors in the national territory will promote an apparent spread of the Covid virus by several Brazilian states, as well as the potential entry of new viral variants in national territory, at a time when health authorities are already fighting the sedimentation of the Indian variant,” the PSB argued.
Minister Ricardo Lewandowski is the rapporteur for a third process, which is in virtual plenary but lacks the backing by the majority.
He did not vote against the tournament, but he did demand that the government present within 24 hours a “detailed and in-depth strategy explaining the tactics and activities that it is undertaking, or wants to execute, for the safe realization” of the event.
It also decided that the Federal District, the States of Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso, and Goiás, as well as the municipalities of Rio de Janeiro, Cuiabá, and Goiânia, which intend to host games, must “disclose and present to the Supreme Court, within the same period, a similar system, limited to the respective spheres of competence.”
All is now indicating that the Copa America will hold in Brazil as expected.
