Live Update, Bilingual: Brazil’s (and entire Latin America) Democracy under attack

Democracy continues under attack in Latin America. An attempted coup in Peru, an opposition leader jailed in Bolivia, a government attacking the Supreme Court in Argentina, & Bolsonaro storming Brazil

Começam a chegar na Delegacia de Polícia Especializada de Brasília os criminosos presos pelos atos de extremismo na Esplanada dos Ministérios. O vidro de trás do ônibus que levou os bolsonaristas foi completamente destruído. La insurrección en Brasilia no es una sorpresa y #Lula asumió la presidencia hace una semana. Entonces, ¿por qué el gobierno federal de #Brasil no estuvo mejor preparado?

Las fuerzas pro-democráticas no pueden darse el lujo de relajarse, especialmente en estos tiempos. Weber define al Estado como la asociación q reclama para sí (con éxito) el monopolio del uso de la violencia legítima. Y hoy vimos cómo el Estado en Brasil falló y no desactivó un ataque a la democracia. Qué es la democracia? No es un “concepto esencialmente discutido,” pero es complejo. Los acontecimientos en Brasil hoy son motivo de preocupación. 

Pero, ¿está amenazada la democracia en América Latina sólo por la derecha? Esta tabla hace un balance que muestra que tanto la Derecha como la Izquierda deberían ser más consistentes en su apoyo a la democracia. La democracia necesita unos buenos perdedores tanto o más que buenos ganadores. Un buen perdedor es aquel que reconoce la legitimidad de quien ha ganado y protege los procedimientos establecidos que le permitirían recuperar el poder.

La libre voluntad popular se expresó y Lula Da Silva ganó limpia y legítimamente.

No a los autoritarios que lesionan a las reglas e instituciones de la democracia, sea donde sea. Eu e colegas jornalistas fomos agredidos enquanto trabalhávamos na cobertura de atos terroristas em Brasília. Fui cercada, chutada, empurrada, xingada. Quebraram meus óculos, puxaram meu cabelo, tentaram pegar meu celular. É preciso punir essas pessoas. Isso é crime.

(*This live update in the last 5 days ago, changed or get updated or longer every 20-25 minutes. Please refresh if readers want to get update this page - substack)

Los actos de violencia y vandalismo en Brasilia constituyen un ataque inaceptable contra instituciones democráticas de Brasil por quienes pretenden negar a los brasileños el derecho a votar y a elegir a sus representantes. Com bombas de efeito moral, polícia retira terroristas de cima do Congresso. Eles pintaram de vermelho “SOS FFAA (Forças Armadas)” na cúpula do Senado. Pessoas tossindo e com olhos vermelhos pediam para colegas “não irem embora”

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3 years ago today: A man in Wuhan, China becomes the first confirmed death from COVID-19. Since then, at least 6.7 million people have died. When you look at the same top 10 countries in per capita terms, the US is below both Brazil and Peru for recorded Covid deaths until today (Jan 10th, 223). February 2022 was the month with the highest average cases, while April 2021 was the month with the highest average deaths in Brazil. Amazonas (the capital of which is Manaus) has the highest mortality per 100,000 people in the country, more than double the rate for Brazil. Now not only Covid, but Brazil is also facing chaos.

Democracy continues under attack in Latin America. An attempted coup in Peru, an opposition leader jailed in Bolivia, a government attacking the Supreme Court in Argentina, and now followers of Bolsonaro storming Congress in Brazil. 

The insurrection in Brazil is still not over. Bolsonaristas are now (Jan 10th) blocking the Marginal Tietê, one of the most important roadways in the city of São Paulo. The counter-demonstrations have commenced on the Avenida Paulista in defense of democracy. “Fascists to prison!” they are singing. Scores of military police on horseback and three helicopters overheard.

(22 Hours ago) The Plaza of Three Powers has been almost completely dispersed, but peripheral conflicts continue in Brasilia between armed forces and the Bolsonaristas. Supporters of Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro have damaged the iconic Oscar Niemeyer-designed National Congress, Planalto Palace (The Palácio do Planalto) and Supreme Court buildings after storming the capital of Brasília. Let's not overdo the similarities between Jan 6, 2021 in the US and Jan 9, 2023 in Brazil. São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas – a key former President Bolsonaro ally and governor of the largest police force in the country – refuses to deploy armed forces to reinforce security in the Federal District.

A number of prominent Brazilian Twitter accounts which spread election denial rumours were reinstated after the election and acquisition of the company by Elon Musk. The undeniable U.S. hand in Brazil’s anti-democratic riot. Repeated in a lot of countries, online extremism & use of social media for offline mobilization. Concerns about the violent events unfolding in Brazil have been known for months/years. Social media amplified these falsehoods. There's no excuse.

Democracy in the United States is under duress, strained both by the political gains of nationalist extremists and the creaking anachronism of some of the country’s political institutions. And rather than exporting democratic values, the United States has played its part in also fomenting illiberal and autocratic backlashes elsewhere in the world, from trucker blockades in Canada to anti-vaccination campaigns in Germany. The United States has become a net exporter of anti-government and anti-authority extremism, inspiring and motivating sympathizers in many countries around the world.

That impact was arguably on show Sunday in Brasília, the Brazilian capital, as supporters of defeated former president Jair Bolsonaro rampaged through the heart of the federal state, storming the presidential palace, the Supreme Court and Congress. The scenes of chaos and destruction immediately recalled what transpired two years prior in the United States, when supporters of President Donald Trump briefly ransacked the U.S. Capitol in a bid to thwart the congressional certification of the 2022 election vote.

Sunday’s riot was “a clear attempt to emulate the invasion of the U.S. Capitol, as a reproduction of Trumpist movements and a symbolic signal of strength and transnational connections from the global far right.” What happened in Brazil, to a certain extent, emerged from a Trumpist playbook. For months before the election last year, Bolsonaro cast into doubt the legitimacy of any democratic outcome that didn’t deliver him victory. After losing to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro never fully conceded defeat and skipped Lula’s inauguration earlier this month.

Some of his ardent supporters, radicalized online amid a morass of social media misinformation, refused to accept Lula’s victory, camped out in various parts of the country and clung to visions of deliverance at the hands of a coup-obliging military. But the scenes also reflect the limits of Bolsonaro’s appeal and capacity. While there are suspicions over the extent to which elements of the security forces tolerated or even abetted the protesters’ incursions, weeks of demonstrations against Lula’s election didn’t move any levers of the state. The Bolsonaro people had really studied January 6 and the conclusion that they came to was that Trump failed because he relied on a mob and that he had no institutional support.

Ron DeSantis, self-appointed “protector” of Florida’s children, has been entirely silent as Jair Bolsonaro, a pedophile apologist who flirts with trafficked teens, wanders the streets and greets kids in Orlando. American Republicans are at least tacitly, if not explicitly, fomenting this attempted coup in Brazil.

Elizabeth Bagley, who was unanimously confirmed as US Amb. to Brazil last month (December 22nd), will be ceremonially sworn in today by VP Harris, 1 day after supporters of ex-Brazil’s president Bolsonaro attacked its Congress, Supreme Court and presidential office buidings in its Brasilia capital. Her nomination had been blocked from advancing to the Senate floor since June. Brazil's capital attack complicates US relationship with Bolsonaro. President Joe Biden issued a joint statement on Monday with the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), and Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, condemning “the January 8 attacks on Brazil’s democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power”. The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told journalists on Monday that there had been no contact between the administration and Bolsonaro, and the US had yet to receive any requests from the Brazilian government related to the former president.

Let's not overdo the similarities between Jan 6, 2021 in the US and Jan 8, 2023 in. 6 Jan 2021, far-right, anti-Biden, pro-Trump insurrection against the Capitol building in Washington. 8 Jan 2023, far-right, anti-Lula, pro-Bolsonaro insurrection against congress building in Brasilia. History repeats itself: first as farce, then as another farce. Two years after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block the certification of the 2020 election, Biden awarded 12 people with one of the nation’s highest civilian honors.

Federal deputy Erika Hilton has officially submitted a request to the Foreign Ministry to initiate the extradition of Jair Bolsonaro from the United States. At this point Ron DeSantis is harboring two former world leaders in Florida (Trump-Mar a Lago; Bolsonaro-now in hospital) who have incited insurrections against their countries, emboldened seditionists. The federal government should step in and deport Bolsonaro back to Brazil. Bolsonaro's move to Florida could help insulate him from legal jeopardy, analysts say. His decision to reside in Trump's state of residence also hasn't escaped notice.

Bolsonaro arrived in Florida on 30 December when he was still president, in which case he could have entered on an A-1 visa reserved for foreign leaders. In theory that visa would have been revoked when he ceased to be president on 1 January, but as he was already in the US by then, it is unclear whether he had to change to a tourist visa or could stay on under his expired A-1. After that, he must apply for a new visa – which the Biden administration can decide to provide or deny.

The Brazilian government inquiry into the Brasília insurrection is also likely to focus on the role of Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro’s justice minister who was in charge of security in Brasília, who was also in Orlando over the weekend. Torres, who was fired on Sunday, claimed to be there on a family holiday and to have had no contact with Bolsonaro.

If Brazil’s supreme court issued an arrest warrant for Bolsonaro and he then refuses to return to Brazil to give himself up, Brazil could issue an Interpol red notice prompting his arrest by US federal agents. Bolsonaro could then try to fight extradition and seek asylum in US courts, potentially triggering a prolonged legal battle.

Bolsonaro has been admitted to a AdventHealth Commercial hospital in the U.S. (Florida) with severe abdominal pain a day after his supporters stormed Brasilia. Before to the hospital, Bolsonaro is looking at snickers in a Publix just miles from Trumps’s Mar-a-Lago Jair Bolsonaro speaks out, on Twitter, about the insurrection in his name – only to throw his supporters under the bus, even comparing them to the forces of the “left” against which today’s entire mobilization was targeted. 

Federal Police interrogating insurrectionists one by one and drawing up charges for their crimes. Federal police have just carried out a controlled explosion outside the wrecked Supreme Court in Brasília. Security forces from across the country are dispatched to Brasilia following last night’s decree by President Lula to reinforce the security of the Federal District. Lula & leaders of Congress & Supreme Court unite to condemn "terrorist acts and criminal, coup-mongering vandalism that occurred" when far-right ex-pres Bolsonaro's supporters ran riot Sunday in the seat of power in Brasilia. Lula, along with the presidents of Brazil's upper and lower houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, signed a decree repudiating what they described as "coup acts in Brasilia." 

One of Lula’s closest aides, Celso Amorim, says that pro-Bolsonaro “band of fascists” appeared to have vandalized the office of Brazil’s first lady, Rosângela Lula da Silva, with particular delight.Minister Paulo Pimenta shows off the destruction caused by the insurrection to his office. In some cases, the damage will take weeks to repair. In others, priceless items were lost or destroyed. Clean-up begins at the National Congress, Presidential Palace and Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil after supporters of Bolsonaro invaded and ransacked the buildings on Sunday. The heroic workers of the Presidential Palace have come to clean up the mess of the insurrection.

The insurrection in Brasilia is not surprising & Lula assumed the presidency a week ago. Why was Brazil's federal government not better prepared? Pro-democracy forces cannot afford to relax, especially in these times.