Jan 13 2023 | Nº. 49

Editorial

The Global Community Rallies in Defense of Brazilian Democracy 

When President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s inauguration went off without a hitch on January 1, many thought the threat to Brazil’s democratic order posed by ardent partisans of former president Jair Bolsonaro had passed. To be sure, Lula still faced the daunting task of depoliticizing the armed forces and other state institutions, but he would do so in power with democratic legitimacy on his side. That democratic legitimacy had to be marshalled this week to confront a frontal assault on key government buildings in Brasilia. Indeed, a key difference between the Capitol invasion that stunned Washington on January 6 two years ago and the riotous insurrection that shook the Brazilian capital last Sunday was the fact that the new president was already in office during the latter. This enabled the Lula administration to act quickly to shore up public safety in Brasilia by declaring a federal intervention and start making the political case for why further crackdowns were necessary.

Lula took office riding a wave of international goodwill. That positive disposition toward Brazil has been a valuable asset following the most spectacular attack on the symbolic arenas of Brazilian democracy in decades. The world stood united behind Lula’s mandate and the country’s democratic institutions. In an unprecedented display of transnational solidarity—an effort sponsored by the Washington Brazil Office—over 60 U.S. and Brazilian elected representatives signed a joint statement repudiating the actions of Bolsonaro supporters in Brasilia last Sunday. “As lawmakers in Brazil and the United States,” the statement read, “we stand united against the efforts by authoritarian, anti-democratic far right actors to overturn legitimate election results and overthrow our democracies, including the recent January 8, 2023 attacks on the Brazilian presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court as well as the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.”

Last Sunday was a dark day for Brazilian democracy, but it has done nothing to shake the legitimacy or international standing of the elected government. If anything, it has raised international attention even further to the threat posed by militant far-right forces in Brazil and beyond. Channeling concern for the health of government institutions into improvements to the mechanisms of Brazilian democracy is all the more urgent now. The early reaction to the insurrection would indicate that Lula feels up to the task.   

Paulo Abrão is Executive Director at WBO, Visiting Scholar at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, and Senior Advisor at Article 19 for South America.

Highlights

• ATTACKS IN BRASILIA. On Sunday, January 8, thousands of extreme-right militants linked to former President Jair Bolsonaro invaded the seats of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the Brazilian government in the nation’s capital of Brasília. Vandals stormed the historic buildings located at the Plaza of the Three Powers and destroyed windows, furniture, and art collections. There were no deaths nor an expressive number of wounded. This was the first time in the 134 years of the Brazilian republic that rioters simultaneously attacked the headquarters of three branches of government.

• ATTEMPTED COUP. The extremists linked to Bolsonaro do not accept Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory in the October 30 elections. Without presenting any proof, they allege that the electronic voting machines were unreliable. The invaders extended an enormous banner along the top of the congressional building with word “Intervention,” a request for the armed forces to carry out a coup d´état and establish a military dictatorship in the country.

• LACK OF SECURITY. When the invasion took place, there was an insufficient number of police and military personnel on hand to contain the crowd. Officers were seen fraternizing with the rioters and taking selfies with them. Over the last four years, large sectors of the Brazilian military have been co-opted by Bolsonaro. The Lula government suspects that a security failure resulted from this cooptation. Because the governor of the Federal District is responsible for ensure security in the nation’s capital, the Supreme Court suspended Governor Ibaneis Rocha for ninety days for this security breach. Anderson Torres, the Secretary of Public Security, Bolsonaro’s former justice minister who was in charge of overseeing police operations in Brasília, was vacationing in Florida when the invasion occurred. He has been charged with criminal behavior and is subject to arrest when he returns from the United States.

• THOUSANDS ARRESTED. After the invasion ended, the police finally began to arrest those involved. Initially, approximately 300 rioters were detained. The next morning, more than 1,500 more violent demonstrators were imprisoned, including pro-coup Bolsonaro supporters, who had been camped for months in front of the army’s general headquarters in Brasília.

• PROMPT REACTION. The government’s reaction to the events on January 8 was rapid, coordinated, and cohesive. Justice Minister Flávio Dino announced that rioters would be held responsible for their actions. President Lula held a meeting with the governors of the states, representatives of the municipalities, and the presidents of the senate, the lower chamber of the congress, and the supreme court. In a symbolic gesture, they then walked together across the square from the presidential palace to the building housing the supreme court, which had also been seriously damaged.

• BLOCKING BANK ACCOUNTS. Four days after the invasion, the attorney-general, who represents the federal government, asked the ministry of justice to block the accounts, worth the equivalent of US$ 1.2 million, of 52 people and companies that rented the buses that took the invaders to Brasília. This money will be used to repair the buildings that the extremists destroyed on January 8.

• OPINION POLLS. Research by the Datafolha Institute published on January 12 indicates that 93 percent of interviewees state they are against the violence that occurred in Brasília. Only 3 percent said that they were in favor of such actions. Of those who declared that they had voted for Bolsonaro, only 10 percent supported the invasion. Another 87 percent said that those found guilty must be punished.

• WORK OF THE WBO. International condemnation of the attempted coup was unanimous. The WBO participated in the articulation of two of initiatives: a joint statement of more than 60 U.S. and Brazilian lawmakers opposing the threats coordinated by the extreme right in both countries, and a letter sent by a group of Democratic Party congressional representatives to President Joe Biden asking that Bolsonaro be investigated and his US visa suspended. Bolsonaro has been in Orlando, Florida since December 30. Although he denies any involvement in planning the attacks in Brasília, over the last four years he has made numerous statements supporting violent acts designed to destabilize, undermine, and destroy democracy.

• CRIMINAL EVIDENCE. On Thursday, January 12, the Federal Police found a draft of a presidential decree in former Brasilía Security Chief Anderson Torres's house during a search and seizure operation ordered by the Supreme Court. The text, written when Torres was Bolsonaro's minister of justice, is the draft of a decree that was never carried out. However, it indicates the Bolsonaro government intended to accuse the Electoral Court of having taken illegal measures to proclaim Lula's victory. The document is the strongest proof so far showing the coup intentions of Bolsonaro and his closest advisors.

Feature Article

The International Reaction to the Attempted Coup in Brazil

By Paulo Abrão

The frustrated attempt at a coup d'état in Brasília on January 8 was rejected with relative effectiveness by a wide range of democratic forces. These forces are primarily made up of national figures, who have had and must remain in contact with important international actors supporting democracy in Brazil.

As has rarely been seen, on the day after the invasions of the seats of the three branches of the Brazilian government, there was a significant convergence among the leaders of the executive, legislative and judiciary, in addition to the governors of the 26 states and the leaders of the association of mayors. In a coordinated, unified, and cohesive manner, the nation responded with force, through these institutions and their leaders, regardless of their partisan and political-ideological differences.

President Lula played the role of a statesman by leading an important meeting on Monday, January 9, which was held in the presidential palace (Palácio do Planalto) in Brasília, a building that is still scarred by damage. Then, in a strong symbolic gesture, he went down the ramp of the presidential palace – the same one he had gone up on January 1 when he was inaugurated as president. This time he was accompanied by all the country’s senior authorities, who walked together to the headquarters of the Supreme Court, whose historic building had also been violently vandalized by Bolsonaro’s supporters the day before.

The unified reaction of these national leaders was a fundamental part of the response to this attempted coup d'état, which was coordinated and conducted within the country by key national figure, but it also had fundamental foreign support.

On the same day as the extremist attacks on the capital, leaders from around the world used their social networks, and then traditional diplomatic channels, to condemn the coup movement and reiterate their support for President Lula and Brazilian democracy. No government has questioned the legitimacy of Lula's election, nor has any head of state supported the extreme right movement that had recently attacked the three branches of power in Brazil. Not even exponents of this new populist extreme right, such as the Prime Minister of Italy Girogia Meloni, dared offer backing to Bolsonaro and his followers.

Then, on January 11, at least lawmakers representing two other international initiatives issued statements. First, a group of more than 60 Brazilian and US congressional representatives and senators signed a joint declaration warning of threats from an extreme right that operates in a coordinated manner in both countries. In addition, the binational group called for the accountability of those involved in these actions to destabilize democracy.

That same day, another congressional group – this time, made up only of Americans – handed US President Joe Biden a letter asking for Bolsonaro’s US visa to be revoked. The group also requested that the former Brazilian president be investigated to determine whether he plotted against Brazilian democracy from US territory, after he traveled to Orlando, Florida on December 30, two days before Lula’s inauguration as president. 

All these international actions show a unified agreement about democratic principles, which has rarely been seen in recent years. Even if not all these responses were coordinated from a single center, they reveal enormous coherence, even considering the natural nuances between the different actors and their respective government institutions.

The WBO played an influential role in some of these initiatives. The organization worked to bring together US and Brazilian congressional representatives to draft the joint declaration in which they warn of the risks that the extreme right in both countries poses to democracy. Then, the WBO participated in the articulation of the letter addressed to Biden, which requests an investigation into the role of the former Brazilian president in anti-democratic acts, in addition to demanding the revocation of his visa.

The WBO’s role in defending Brazilian democracy is not new. Six months ago, the organization took a group of representatives of 19 Brazilian civil society organizations to Washington to warn members of the State Department and US Congress about the risks that Bolsonaro posed to the electoral system and democracy as a whole.

To a large extent, the extensive network of international solidarity in favor of Brazilian democracy already existed, which allowed for a quick reaction in the face of extreme events. The invasion of the Brazilian Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court located in Brasília in what is known as the Plaza of the Three Powers (Praça dos Três Poderes) could easily have led to an even more tragic outcome, such as the achievement of its main objective, which was to depose a legitimate government, to say nothing of the risk of injuries and deaths. 

These recent events reinforce the importance of permanent and persistent work to connect not only lawmakers from both countries, but also civil society, which is at the forefront of protecting democratic rights. The WBO will continue in its role in linking key actors in both countries while expanding its position as a provider of expert knowledge about Brazil in this very important moment in the consolidation of Brazilian democracy.

Paulo Abrão is Executive Director at WBO, Visiting Scholar at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, and Senior Advisor at Article 19 for South America.

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