Bolstered by rising resentment toward President Dilma Rousseff, Jair Bolsonaro and other rightwing politicians want to lower age of criminal responsibility

Among Brazil’s weak and demoralised leftwing members of Congress, they are known as the “Bancada BBB”: Bullets, Beef and Bible Caucus.

These conservative hardliners – from Brazil’s security forces, agricultural sector and evangelical churches – triumphed in last October’s legislative elections, while President Dilma Rousseff, of the leftwing Workers’ Party (PT), only narrowly won re-election.

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Over the past few months, the president’s authority has been undermined by a massive corruption scandal, major street protests and the open revolt of many of her former political allies.

With a survey this week showing that 63% of Brazilians would support impeachment proceedings against her, an energised coalition of rightwing deputies are attempting to impose their agenda on Congress.

Their long-term aims include liberalising Brazil’s gun laws and opening up its indigenous territories to industry. But their first goal is to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16.

Under Brazil’s Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA), the maximum legal punishment for someone ages 12-18 is three years’ internment in a juvenile socio-educative detention centre. In theory, such a sentence is only applicable in cases involving violence, though judges often interpret the law to include drug-trafficking.

One of the prime movers behind the attempt to change the age of criminal responsibility is Jair Bolsonaro, 60, a six-time federal deputy, who won more votes than any other congressman in Rio de Janeiro in the 2014 elections.

Speaking to the Guardian at his house inside an immaculate gated community in Rio’s upmarket suburb of Barra da Tijuca, Bolsonaro said: “An adolescent can rape and kill 200 people and he is still not treated like a criminal in Brazil. Most minors know that if they are going to commit a robbery, it is better to kill the victim as there is less chance of being caught, and if they are, the punishment will be the same.”

According to Unicef, however, Brazilian adolescents are far more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators: of the 21 million aged 12-17, just 0.013% committed murder, robbery with murder, rape or bodily harm, while homicide was the cause of 36.5% of all adolescents’ deaths by non-natural causes. Thirty-three thousand Brazilian adolescents were murdered in Brazil from 2006 to 2012.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brazilian adolescents are far more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators, according to Unicef. Photograph: Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty Images

Bolsonaro’s response to such statistics is to argue that PT’s social assistance programmes have encouraged “irresponsible paternity”. This has created a generation of Brazilians “who, sadly, have no future whatsoever” and who are prone to violence because of the lack of a rigorous criminal justice system.

The former army captain, who hopes to run for the presidency in 2018, is the indisputable poster child of the insurgent Brazilian right, and repeatedly courts controversy with gratuitously offensive speeches.

On Tuesday he was ordered by a federal judge to pay R$150,000 (£33,000) in damages for homophobic comments he made on Brazilian TV in 2011. In an interview with Playboy that same year he said he would “rather his child died in an accident than be gay”.

He is also being sued by Maria do Rosário, a former human rights’ minister from the PT, after he described her, in Congress, as “not worth raping”. Over 10 years earlier he had told her the same thing, at the end of a televised discussion on the age of criminal responsibility.

While claiming he exaggerated “a little” over his comments to Playboy, he was unrepentant over the comments to Do Rosário. “Who is tougher on rape? I have presented two projects to Congress on the issue: first, to strengthen the sentencing for rape; second, to offer chemical castration to offenders. But the PT has blocked them both.”

With over 550,000 inmates, Brazil has the world’s fourth-largest prison population. More than 40% of those incarcerated are still awaiting trial. But Bolsonaro believes prison is the best way to reduce the country’s extremely high level of violent crime. “I prefer a prison full of criminals than a graveyard full of innocent people,” he said.

On 31 March, the bill to lower the age of criminal responsibility passed its first legislative hurdle. A Datafolha opinion poll published on Wednesday showed that 87% of Brazilians are in favour of the bill. With such popular and congressional support, Bolsonaro is confident that finally, after almost two decades of trying, he will succeed. “As soon as the law is passed, I will put forward another constitutional amendment, to lower the age to 14,” he said.

However, even if Congress approves the bill, it would still require ratification by the senate. It may also face obstacles in the supreme court. Earlier this week President Rousseff used her Facebook feed to condemn the proposal.

“Lowering the age of criminal responsibility will not solve the problem of juvenile delinquency,” she wrote, though she added that she had instructed her justice minister to begin a debate over the ECA.

Even those opposed to a lowering of the age of criminal responsibility question whether the three-year maximum sentence is sufficient.

Julita Lemgruber, a former director of Rio de Janeiro’s prison system, said there was a debate to be had over extending the period of custody for adolescents convicted of serious crimes. But she added the real issue was the state’s failure to implement existing legislation.

“The law is very clear on the services that should be provided to adolescents when they are deprived of their liberty. But they never get them. On the contrary, instead they are put into these filthy and overcrowded places with nothing to do.”

But Lemgruber is worried that Bolsonaro will get his way. “The reality is that the federal government is very vulnerable at the moment. Everything is negotiable,” she said.