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Pro-Bolsonaro demonstrations in Brasília justify Lula’s exceptional law and order measures – but his greatest task will be to pacify the country.
Written by Lucas Leiroz, researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant.
Brazilian political scenario is increasingly tense. Anti-Lula protests grow day after day, with thousands of people taking to the streets in several cities to demand the revoke of the 2022 electoral process. Recently, in an act of vandalism and disdain for the most basic civic values, pro-Bolsonaro militants invaded Brasília, damaging public buildings and the facilities of the executive, legislative and judicial branches. As a result, the Lula government began a tough response to those involved, punishing protesters, and intervening in Brasilia’s regional politics.
The Federal District of Brasilia was the target of scenes of depredation on January 8th. Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters – commonly referred to as “Bolsonarists” –attacked the Parliament, the Supreme Court and the Planalto Palace – the headquarters of the Three Branches of the Republic. Historical pieces of art that were kept on site were also destroyed, creating a true scene of barbarism.
The majority of the militants wore shirts from the Brazilian soccer team and held flags of Brazil, the US and Israel – which has already become commonplace in Bolsonarist demonstrations. As in other protests across the country, Bolsonarists demanded in Brasília the end of the Lula government and the calling for new elections. Some more radical militants called for military intervention – which is also a common agenda among Brazilian rightists. The invasion lasted a few hours, but the authorities regained control of the situation before the end of the day.
In fact, if Bolsonarists’ intention was to weaken the Lula government, the plan failed. The president of Brazil, with broad support from the national media and international authorities, took control of the situation with tough measures to guarantee law and order. Not only were the protesters repelled, but hundreds of them were identified and arrested. Lula signed a decree imposing federal intervention in Brasília’s public security, taking exceptional measures to guarantee order and end the vandalism. Measures to break telephone secrecy and in-depth intelligence investigations are also being operated in order to point out all the culprits for the invasion, including its possible sponsors.
Indeed, mass protests in Brasilia are not common. The Brazilian capital has an urban structure that does not allow for large popular mobilizations to pressure the authorities who work there. The isolation of politicians and government’s facilities was precisely the central objective of the architectural project of Brasilia in the 1960s. Before, when the capital was in Rio de Janeiro, federal facilities were easily accessible to the population, allowing mass protests and social chaos. Brasilia, on the other hand, is built differently, with access routes that are very restricted and easily blocked by the authorities, so that large mobilizations there can only occur in case of negligence or connivance on the part of the police.
This led the Brazilian government to identify the heads of public administration in Brasília as Bolsonarists colluding with the demonstrations, dismissing them from their offices and reformulating the administrative structure of the city with some new government’s allies. The Brazilian media adopted this speech as official and referred to the former police chiefs of Brasilia as Bolsonarists, strengthening the coalition in support of Lula’s measures. On the other hand, leaders of right-wing parties in Brazil claim that there was some kind of “false flag operation”, where the authorities would have deliberately permitted the vandalism of the angry mass precisely to boost a radicalization of the Lula government. The war of narratives does not seem to end anytime soon.
What is really important, however, is not the political position of the former police chiefs of Brasilia, but what comes next. The Brazilian government and the media formally classified the protesters as “terrorists”, which raises a series of questions. While there has undoubtedly been vandalism and a number of deplorable acts, classifying these acts as “terrorism” is questionable and justifies all sorts of exceptional measures. To combat terrorism, extraordinaryactions are valid, thus justifying the breach of the legal-constitutional norms to restore order.
Some critics of Lula fear that the new government will commit abuses and make the January 8 decree a kind of Brazilian “Patriot Act”. This criticism is valid, and the actions must be monitored so that they do not become abuses, but the most important thing, instead of criticizing Lula’s measures, is to find the necessary mechanisms to pacify the country.
Brazil is absolutely divided, polarized and tense. On the one hand, radical Bolsonarists who do not accept the former president’s defeat; on the other, similarly radical pro-Lula militants – who are now even calling for popular mobilization to “stop” the rightist protesters. As a result, Brazil remains inflamed by political partisanship, with no real concern for a project for the Brazilian State that overcomes ideological and partisan antagonisms.
Lula istrying to find those responsible for the protests in the capital. He accuses Bolsonaro of being the instigator of the actions and has even received support from key members of the American Democratic Party, who are now asking Washington to “extradite” the former Brazilian president who is in the US since December. However, there is still no lawsuit that legitimizes such “extradition” and continuing to try to find “culprits” is perhaps just a way to further deepen polarization.
Lula’s great challenge will not be to punish the members of the former government, nor even to put an end to radical rightism in the country. His great task is to overcome social hostility and find a way to pacify Brazil. Perhaps, calling thousands of Brazilian citizens “terrorists” is not the best way to do this. Undoubtedly, vandalism must be punished, but the ultimate goal must be national reconciliation.
CIA………..
Lula will peacefy everything like Zelensky. It will start with compulsory mARN infection.
A disgusting WEF serf.
Your not getting brazilian oil fascist,hands off brazil + brics,FIXED! =Z=
Looks like the cias prodigy been poisoned in usa,
Lula is part of the forces of evil! He is a false left-wing populist. He is with the shitty globalists. He is a very old and ugly beast. I am glad that he will be swept away like garbage.
So you don’t believe in Democracy you twat?
I believe in positive forces, not evil forces that use false democracy to steal and kill people.
It is called Theocracy. Rule by Truth/Good.
Very well. Exactly. These are Spiritual wars. Good versus evil.
Democracy is demon rule. Demo and demon is the same word.
I agree. Perfect.
I certainly don’t, at least not in representative “liberal democracy” as we currently have it in the west. It’s been a lever for marxist subversion and oligarch corruption in europe since the age of kings ended. The only country that has anything like a working democracy in the EU are the Swiss. So let it be that, or really any other system. Ironicly, judged by the way China actively responds to it’s citizens wishes when they speak up loud and clear, (as with the withdrawal of mandatory vaccinations in Beijing, and most recently the removal of 0-covid policy after popular protests) Chinese “communism” seems far more democratic in practice than anything going on in Europe as of today.
Fascists don’t like losing,all depends if the military decide they are democratic and not some tool of the elite and Washington.
Yesss, look to what happened in Israhell, where once again, that SOB called Bibi is came into power.
But they are terrorists
Bolsonazi is the main responsable for this shxt. He is also the main responsable for the Amazonas devastation in the recent years, in 2020 even PANTANAL (the greatest humid habitat in the world) caugh fire! Tell to brazilian indios who is Bolsonazi! But those huge S.O.B. don’t like to loose, the fascists can only win of course!
Lula is a globalist and linked to the US Democrat party! Fact. Also the voting the CIA visited Brazil some 6 months before the election to tell Bolsonaro that he will lose the election and should agree to allow Lula to form a government this is before the election and after the voting machines had been set up to arrive in Brazil the election was a fake CIA operation directed by the Biden administration in Washington
And how does that square with the Bolsonaristas marching around with US and Israeli flags? How does it square with the fact that Lula’s ally and successor Dilma Rousseff was overthrown and replaced with a CIA asset? I think you’re confused.
I agree that the situation in Brazil in confusing but the globalists are making their move and the forces of evil the Anglo American Jewish cabal are organising all of it
Sounds like another J6 style false flag to me
It’s time for flat earth people to see the sun rise square. Bolsonaro spent $65 billion on foreign reserves and another $300 billion on the budget. He used swindler Evangelical pastors interested in money and power to trade his faithful as beef cattle. He used every Steve Beno available to create a legion of obsessed fanatics. They preach an unrestricted and unconditional alignment with the USA that they believe to be the terrestrial paradise. It sold refineries and public companies to international speculative capital and distributed hundreds of billions in dividends to half a dozen shareholders of the state-owned Petro without reinvesting a penny.
It encouraged prospecting and illegal mining, deforestation at an industrial level, and turned a blind eye to invasions of public lands by landowners in hundreds of thousands of square kilometers.Stimulated hate and neo-fascist speech. Suppressed labor and social security rights.A large portion was seduced by this empty speech and lack of project. But not most. Lula won and one of the creators of the BRICS. All the luck and he to sew this country cracking but still sufficiently kept his intentions.In my opinion, we were crossed by a color revolution that started in 2013.The damage was gigantic. Certain nations are so ambitious that they will fall for it. Forces Russia penultimate barrier to NATO monopoly
When you’re a literal criminal, pardoned by corrupt judges for no obvious reason. People are going to be mad when you’re “elected”.
It’s a shame that Bolsonaro is such a shill and so poor a vessel for the pro-brasilian rightwing. But he is what they have, and they don’t want to give up the country to third world communism just because somewhere in that hive of socialist corruption there’s also a understanding that the country deserves better than to be the eternal, spineless American bootlickers their rightwing always ends up as.
I read another very recent article on Zerohedge.com from Pepe Escobar and said it the situation in Brazil is all CIA led. Many comments there say Pepe is wrong and Lula is WEF’s boy. However it appears the reason for coup attempt, was to keep Brazil of BRICKS orbit.
Nothing mentioned by the leftist Lula shill about the glaring election fraud
There are still injustices in this report. Bolsonaro is irrelevant in the demands of the demonstrators. Who cares if a politician in exile in Florida is still the president? The appeal of the public is mainly to ask the federal government to disclose the source code of the digital voting system. A vote that cannot be verified will undermine the legitimacy of the election. The government has an obligation to ensure that the election process is absolutely credible. And the release of people who have been arrested for political reasons in the past two months – bluntly speaking, they are political prisoners, and people in any democratic country should not be arrested because of his political stance. And Senator Marcos do Val pointed out that Minister of Justice Flávio Dino knew that the attack would happen the day before but did nothing. Of course, it is difficult to avoid being questioned.
Lula asking Washington to “extradite” the former Brazilian president Bolsonaro who is in the US since December and 1 more thing i will say, Bulgarian ex premier Boyko Borisov bought these same Brazilian electronic Election machines for very high prices. He also wanted to make fraud by these Brasilian machines but the Opposition parties understood this and used these machines against him and he loosed. Then Boyko Borisov said Election fraud has been maded. At the recent time, Bulgarian parlament banned using these Brasilian machines because of fraud suspicion. Here, what Brazil has to do is to turn off the electronic election system with the machines and switch to manual counting.
America wants to get Brazil out of BRiCKS and wants to put it in America’s orbit. America dont want Brasilia and Russia together at Bricks.. so u.s put lula on the admijistration
https://youtube.com/shorts/-REGWtTWm6g?feature=share In this video, they are celebrating for stealing the Bolsonaro votes.Brazilian election results are fake and should be cancelled.