Institutional Act Number Five
The Ato Institucional Número Cinco – AI-5 () was the fifth of seventeen major decrees issued by the military dictatorship in the years following the 1964 coup d'état in Brazil. "Institutional Acts" were the highest form of legislation during the military regime, given that they overruled even the highly authoritarian Constitution, and were enforced without the possibility of judicial review. They were issued on behalf of the "Supreme Command of the Revolution" (the regime's leadership). AI-5, the most infamous of all Institutional Acts, was issued by dictator Artur da Costa e Silva, president at the time on  December 13, 1968. It resulted in the forfeiture of mandates, interventions ordered by the President in municipalities and states and also in the suspension of any constitutional guarantees which eventually resulted in the institutionalization of the torture commonly used as a tool by the State. Written by then Minister of Justice, Luís Antônio da Gama e Silva, it came as a response to earlier events such as a march of over fifty thousand people in Rio de Janeiro to protest against the murder of student Edson Luís de Lima Souto by a member of the Military Police of Rio de  Janeiro, the March of the One Hundred Thousand, and the decision of the Chamber of Deputies denying authorization to prosecute Congressman Márcio Moreira Alves, which called Brazilians to boycott the celebrations of September 7 (Independence of Brazil). It also aimed to consolidate the ambitions of a group inside the military, known as "hardline", unwilling to give the power back to the civilians anytime soon. Consequences. The immediate consequences of the AI-5 were: Rebel ARENA. The AI-5 did not silence a group of Senators from ARENA, the political party created to give support for the dictatorship. Under the leadership of Daniel  Krieger, the following Senators signed a disagreement message addressed to the president: Gilberto Marinho, Miltom Campos, Carvalho Pinto, Eurico Resende, Manoel Villaça, Wilson Gonçalves, Aloisio de Carvalho Filho, Antonio Carlos Konder Reis, Ney Braga, Mem de Sá, Rui Palmeira, Teotônio Vilela, José Cândido Ferraz, Leandro Maciel, Vitorino Freire, Arnon de Melo, Clodomir Milet, José Guiomard, Valdemar Alcântara and Júlio Leite. And this unclassified document gives more background into how the ARENA political party was discriminated by the dictatorship and the AI-5 decree. The end of AI-5. In October 13, 1978, President Ernesto Geisel allowed Congress to pass a constitutional amendment  putting an end to AI-5 and restoring habeas corpus, as part of his policy of "distensão" (détente) and "abertura política" (political opening). The constitutional amendment came into force on January 1, 1979. In 2004, the celebrated television documentary titled "AI-5 – O Dia Que Não Existiu" ("AI-5 – The Day That Never Existed"), was released. The documentary analyzes the events prior to the decree and its consequences. Gallery. Pages of the Institutional Act Number Five. National Archives of Brazil