Carol Pires*
These facts should help Bolsonaro’s supporters who still believed in his good intentions wake up to the danger that their messiah represents.
After being defeated at the polls, Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro fled to Orlando, United States, on December 30, before the end of his term. Did without admitting victory democracy of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and leaving a bomb that finally exploded this Sunday the 8th, when his sympathizers invaded and looted the presidential palace, the National Congress and the Federal Supreme Court to protest once morest a non-existent electoral fraud. The traces of the former president are in the broken glass of the Plaza de los Tres Poderes, in Brasilia, and throughout the path of political radicalization in Brazil.
His own entry into public life, in 1987, was through extremism. Army captain, Bolsonaro became known during the first civilian government following the dictatorship by his plan to explode bombs in barracks in protest of low wages. After being elected deputy, in the 1990s, spent decades gaining media attention for anti-democratic and violent speeches, like when he said in an interview that, if he were elected president, “he would close Congress that same day.” It is no surprise that, as president, It has left the country dismantled, hungry, hundreds of thousands of people dead from covid-19, and political radicalization out of control.
Bolsonaro spent the four years of his administration fueling hatred once morest democratic institutions and their representatives, spreading lies regarding the electoral system Alreadythreatening to use the Armed Forces to assert their will. That speech led hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters to camp for more than two months in front of barracks asking for a military intervention once morest the non-existent fraud and the democratic government of Lula, without being dissuaded by Bolsonaro or the Army. The extremists decided to take their hatred to Brasilia and it is not difficult to identify at whose request. Bolsonaro must be punished for these events, following proving his participation.
For now, it is clear that there was an omission on the part of several public agents. The Bolsonaro horde walked for almost two hours to the Esplanade of the Ministries, where the headquarters of the three State powers are located. The Police might have stopped them, but decided to escort them as if they were his private security guards. For the next three hours, the Bolsonaristas destroyed public buildings without anyone holding them back.
Omission or police complicity?
The omission -or complicity- of the Police was unacceptable, but not unexpected. Since Bolsonaro’s presidency, many security agents have become radicalized and the chief of the Brasilia Police and Minister of Public Security, Anderson Torres, has been Bolsonaro’s right-hand man in his smear campaign once morest the electoral system.
When he was justice minister in the Bolsonaro government, he appointed a director for the Federal Highway Police that the corporation used to support illegal roadblocks in favor of the former president and tried to prevent Lula voters from reaching the polls.
At the end of the Bolsonaro government, Torres was appointed minister of state Public Security by the governor of the Federal District of Brasilia, Ibaneis Rocha, a concealed Bolsonarista. At the time of the attack, Torres was on vacation in Orlando, exactly where Bolsonaro traveled. Showing how the Bolsonaro vandals found their way free in Brasilia should not be complicated.
In Brazil, the Supreme Court and Congress have been united once morest Bolsonaro’s coup impulses during and following his tenure. And the election of Lula by a broad front of parties -including some that were previously his adversaries- It definitively confirms that the majority of society values democracy above political disagreements.
The union of the powers of the State was revealed in the photograph of the main political actors of the country meeting last night in front of the destroyed Supreme Court. They all did what was in their power. President Lula determined a federal intervention in the public security of Brasilia by appointing a trustee of his trust.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, of the Supreme Court, Governor Ibaneis Rocha was suspended for 90 days from his position for connivance with the violent acts, and the Attorney General’s Office requested prison for Anderson Torres. At least 1,200 Bolsonaristas were arrested for vandalism. There is a possibility that they will be prosecuted for “attempting to overthrow a legitimately constituted government”, a crime provided for in article 359-M of the Penal Code.
These facts should help Bolsonaro’s supporters who still believed in his good intentions wake up to the danger that their messiah represents. It will be up to the Legislative Branch to sign regulations that dismantle the extremist disinformation network that has radicalized so many voters to the point of collective delirium. and justice will have the mission of making all those responsible for the destruction of the country pay for their crimes, which have not been few.
*Brazilian journalist and screenwriter. Master in Latin American Studies from Columbia University in New York. (The Washington post).
