Nov 22 2024 | Nº. 144

Editorial

The G20 summit in Brazil this week was a significant moment for global diplomacy, and particularly for Brazil’s role on the world stage under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Hosting the summit for the first time, the Brazilian government aimed to advance Lula’s ambitious progressive agenda, focusing on combating hunger, inequality, and environmental degradation. Despite his relatively high popularity among the leaders of the world’s largest economies, over the course of Brazil’s year atop the G20—a position that rotates annually—Lula faced challenges in achieving some of his broader goals, such as the introduction of a global wealth tax, which was met with resistance from the United States and other countries. Nonetheless, Lula's leadership stood as a contrast to rising authoritarianism, especially as figures like Donald Trump loom large on the global stage. Indeed, the summit also offered a chance for outgoing President Joe Biden to strengthen ties with Brazil and demonstrate commitment to progressive policies, adhering to Lula’s proposed Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty.

Biden arrived before the start of the summit and became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Amazon rainforest. During his visit, he announced a US$50 million contribution to the Amazon Fund, bringing the total U.S. support since Lula’s inauguration in 2023 to US$100 million, a considerable yet relatively small commitment to a crucial effort aimed at accelerating conservation efforts. He also took credit for a U.S. clean energy revolution which he said is irreversible, hinting at challenges for climate change mitigation efforts almost sure to arise from the incoming Trump administration

Following the end of the G20 summit, Lula received Chinese leader Xi Jinping for an official state visit, announcing a series of new trade efforts but no Brazilian commitment to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. A darker shadow loomed over the entire week, however, namely, the recent revelation of a plot to assassinate Lula shortly after his 2022 election, along with his then-running mate Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The arrested conspirators, including a former top aide to ex-president Jair Bolsonaro and a federal police agent, are expected to lead to further revelations into anti-democratic efforts to undermine the 2022 election—including, possibly, implicating Bolsonaro even more directly than he already has been.

Highlights

• Coup plot. The Federal Police has indicted former President Jair Bolsonaro for participating in a coup plot that aimed to prevent the inauguration of the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at the end of 2022. In addition to Bolsonaro, alwo indicted were retired General Walter Braga Netto, who was Minister of Defense and candidate for vice president along with Bolsonaro on the ticket that sought reelection but ended up losing to Lula, and General Augusto Heleno, who was also a minister under Bolsonaro. Another 34 people, in addition to the three of them, were also indicted in the same case, which deals with the crimes of violent elimination of the Democratic State of Law, coup d'état, and formation of a criminal organization.

• Next steps. The case was sent to the Brazilian Supreme Court, where it will be handled by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the investigations into attacks on democracy in Brazil. The Attorney General's Office is also expected to make a statement soon and may strengthen the case if it files charges against those indicated by the Federal Police. In the end, Moraes will decide whether to accept the indictment and the possible charges. If he does, Bolsonaro and the other defendants will go to trial. Bolsonaro was previously convicted in another case involving the dissemination of fake news about the Brazilian electoral system. Due to this conviction, he is already ineligible to run for office until 2030, but his allies in Congress had been articulating an amnesty bill, which should now be definitively shelved.

• Military personnel involved. Bolsonaro's indictment was announced just two days after the Federal Police revealed that it was investigating a plot by military personnel to assassinate Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over the Superior Electoral Court in December 2022, when the plan was to be executed. The group consisted of a retired general and three other active military personnel, two of whom were lieutenant colonels and one a major, as well as a Federal Police agent who had worked as Lula's personal security guard.

• Political assassination. Messages exchanged between the group members and intercepted by the Federal Police reveal that they considered poisoning Lula. In addition, they made a list of weapons and ammunition to be used against the other targets, including rifles, pistols, and grenade launchers. The group also prepared a detailed budget to pay for the travel and accommodation of its members in carrying out the attacks. One of the members even set up an ambush at the home of Judge Alexandre de Moraes to kill him, but the operation was aborted at the last minute due to a change in the time of the hearing the minister was attending that night.

• Political motivation. The group's intention was to prevent Lula from taking office as president of the Republic. Lula had defeated Bolsonaro in the October elections and had already been sworn in as the new president by the Electoral Court at that time, but the military wanted to prevent him from taking office. The Brazilian far right fueled the theory that the electronic voting machines had been rigged and that Lula's victory had been illegitimate. A speech – which largely emulates Donald Trump's speech in the election in which he was defeated by Joe Biden – was also repeated by Bolsonaro himself in meetings with foreign diplomats. Bolsonaro was convicted and is ineligible to run until 2030 because of one of these speeches.

• Important connections. At least one of the members of the group was in Bolsonaro's office and printed out a version of the plan that would be executed on a printer in the presidential palace. This same person then sent cell phone messages to Bolsonaro's aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, saying that the then president had accepted the “advice” of the coup-plotting military, without specifying what it was. The group then met at General Braga Netto's house.

• Military junta. One of the elements of the plan was to form a military junta that would take over the country after Lula's assassination. This junta would be formed by Braga Netto and Augusto Heleno, a retired general who was Bolsonaro's minister, had served in the military government (1964-1985) and is known for his angry statements against the Brazilian left. All four involved in the plot were arrested on Tuesday. Two days later, the indictment of Bolsonaro, Netto, Heleno and 34 others was announced.

• Bolsonaro's involvement. Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro's former aide-de-camp, is a key figure in the investigation. He entered into a plea bargain agreement with the courts. In the plea bargain, the Federal Police obtained details of Bolsonaro's coup plot, which included declaring a state of siege in Brazil before Lula's inauguration on January 1, 2023. The then president met with military commanders at the time and asked them to support the action. The idea was to put the military on the streets by means of a decree and encourage popular demonstrations led by far-right militants who, at that time, were camped out at the doors of several army barracks throughout Brazil. This version was confirmed in testimony by the military commanders themselves at the time who, with the exception of the then commander of the Navy, allegedly denied supporting the plan presented by Bolsonaro.

News from the WBO, Organizations and Social Movements

G20 Social. On Friday, November 13, the Brazil Office signed a document originally proposed by the Instituto Novos Paradigmas, called “20 Proposals for the G20 – For Democracy and Equity and for Confronting Authoritarianism”. Paulo Abrão, executive director of the WBO, participated in the launch of the document together with representatives of 19 other signatory organizations, on Friday, November 15 in Rio de Janeiro. Read more at the link.

Artistic freedom. The WBO participated on Thursday, November 21 in the launch of the report “Artistic Freedom from the Perspective of International Human Rights Law”, with which the organization collaborated in the survey of parameters for the protection of the right to freedom of artistic expression, highlighting the importance of its defense, risks and recommendations. The event took place at the headquarters of Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA) in Washington, D.C.. Read more at the link.

Amazon. US President Joe Biden's visit to the Amazon was the subject of a report by Infoamazonia, for which two experts from the Brazil Office contributed analyses and opinions: Juliana de Moraes, coordinator of the Socio-Environmental and Just Transition Program; and James N. Green, president of the organization's Board of Directors. Read more at the link.

Sou da Paz. The Sou da Paz Institute will celebrate its 25th anniversary on Thursday, November 28 in São Paulo. Sou da Paz began as a disarmament campaign, launched in 1997 by a group of students to shed light on a topic that had been ignored in the debate on public security. Since then, the Institute has become one of the main references in research, development, and mobilization for the implementation of public security and violence prevention policies, guided by values ​​of democracy, social justice, and human rights. Click on the link to learn more about Sou da Paz.

For democracy. The Pact for Democracy, a coalition that brings together more than 200 Brazilian civil society organizations, has released a public statement entitled “There is no such thing as a lone wolf. There is an antidemocratic pack.” The document rejects the thesis that the recent attacks on democracy in Brazil are being committed by isolated individuals who are not in coordination with one another. According to the Pact, these acts “clearly contain references (...) to facts, symbols, and slogans similar to those that mobilized thousands of people in last year’s attempted coup and that continue to be present in public debate to this day.” Click on the link to read the document.

Feature Article

A republic of princes - on unregulated tech

By Marianna Poyares*

Only a few months back, Elon Musk suffered what seemed to be a personal defeat by the Brazilian judiciary. In light of federal investigations concerning voter disinformation in Brazil, X was required to close several accounts identified as superspreaders of misinformation. Following Brazil’s Marco Regulatório da Internet, social media platforms must perform content moderation and are held liable if they fail. Musk took upon himself the task to demoralize Justice Alexandre de Morais through the same platform, calling him a communist, Lula’s watch dog, and emphasizing that the Justice was, in fact, curbing dissent and endangering freedom of speech in Brazil. Musk’s refusal led to X’s non-compliance with Brazilian regulations, and the platform was quickly shut down. After a few more weeks of ranting at an empty audience and following the pressure of X shareholders who had suddenly lost one of their main markets, Musk allowed the company to make the necessary changes to comply with Brazilian regulations. The outcome was heralded as a victory for the Brazilian government. I could not disagree more with the assessment. I believe it stands as an example of a victory of democratically constituted regulation over the rules of a prince. 

Musk’s nomination, alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, as head of the Department of Government Efficiency came as no surprise. It generated an overall apprehension of the capture of the federal government and the erasure of existing procedures and protections. This is a particularly grave concern considering that the new Trump administration will inherit from Biden the largest tech-powered surveillance network ever at the disposal of Homeland Security. In the last few years, the Biden administration made its task to take a step back on unpopular policies such as contracts with private contractors for supplying detention beds for immigrant incarceration. Instead, the Biden administration decided to turn the Department of Homeland Security into a tech-heavy agency. So much so that the largest contracts recently established between the DHS and private ventures are for data analytics, data brokerage, and surveillance software and hardware. For instance, while the number of immigrant detention centers was reduced, Immigration and Customs Enforcement “Alternatives to Detention”  program under which immigrants with pending court proceedings (including asylum seekers) are placed under permanent surveillance through the use of ankle bracelets or smartphone apps, jumpers from about 40,000 under Trump I, to now 200,000 under Biden and is purported, given a recent Request For Information recently issued by the federal government, to be expanded to up to 3 million users. Likewise, DHS recently signed a 2 million contract with Israeli company Paragon to acquire spyware capable of reading encrypted messages sent through smartphone apps such as Signal. 

Under the guise of national security, it is unclear who could be targeted by these technologies: potentially anyone characterized as a threat to public or national security. The public’s belief that certain surveillance capabilities exercised by the government target exclusively non-citizens has been proven to be false on multiple occasions. Technologies such as biometric facial recognition or even data mining run on platforms that contain private and sensitive data of immigrants and citizens alike, as Georgetown’s Center on Privacy and Technology American Dragnet report shows. DHS’s surveillance infrastructure has grown massively with little oversight, corresponding democratic controls, or regulation mainly because it appears to be an apparatus that wouldn’t be applied to citizens–or at least not to “good”  citizens. “Not me”. 

Like Glenn Lingon’s billboard America/Me visible from New York City’s High Line, concerns over loss of freedom or even persecution seem to quickly dissipate once enough trust is put into the belief that one is not the intended target. It seems like trust, either in specific authorities, public figures, or even in one’s relative privileges, has replaced conversations over democratic protections, regulations, and safeguards. However, not only trust in the good faith of elected officials leads us to where we are now. Instead, it is the union between two industries that have evaded public scrutiny for far too long, namely, national security and big tech. There has been little effort to create clear mandates, democratic oversight instruments, and systems of accountability and liability for federal agencies and tech companies. In fact, tech enjoys the opacity provided by the pervasive ideology of self-proclaimed objectivity and unbiased analysis. There is too little transparency over parameters, systems of capture and quantification, data markers, and algorithms. And there is almost no accountability for their purported efficacy and accuracy. A republic governed through unregulated tech is like a republic of princes and, as Machiavelli would not let us forget, for princes, it is better to be feared than hated. 

*Vânia Penha-Lopes is a professor of Sociology at Bloomfield College of Montclair State University, co-chair of the Columbia University Seminar on Brazil, and research fellow at the Washington-Brazil Office.

Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.