Jan 19 2024 | Nº. 100

Editorial

Brazil played a key supporting role in ensuring the inauguration of Guatemala's new president, Bernardo Arévalo, sending Vice President Geraldo Alckmin to represent the country. The Permanent Representative of Brazil to the Organization of American States (OAS) Benoni Belli was also in attendance as part of a committee representing that institution’s commitment to an orderly transfer of power. Since Arévalo's clear victory in August, he has faced multiple challenges and political maneuvering orchestrated by conservative forces linked to the previous administration. Throughout, governments across the Americas—including the Biden administration—insisted the electoral results must be respected. The inauguration itself was delayed for hours on Sunday following last-ditch attempts to stall the ceremony. The tense standoff ended early Monday morning, paving the way for Alckmin to witness the historic event alongside other international dignitaries.

“It fills me with deep honor to assume this lofty responsibility, showing that our democracy has the necessary strength to resist and that through unity and trust we can change the political panorama in Guatemala,” Arévalo said in his first address as president. The fact that he faced such a concerted effort to keep him from power despite the expressed will of the people points to ongoing democratic challenges throughout the hemisphere. Such struggles are rooted in the history of the region as well as the particular histories of each country, but, as the Brazil government well knows, a renewed anti-democratic thrust is shaping politics today in unpredictable ways. 

Brazil is already looking ahead to its own elections later this year, with the mayoral race in São Paulo arguably shaping up to be the marquee contest. Lula’s candidate, Congressman Guilherme Boulos of the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), shook up the race this week by all but sealing an alliance with former São Paulo mayor Marta Suplicy. While not quite a redux of the successful Lula-Alckmin ticket, which united former rivals in common cause to win the presidency, a Boulos-Suplicy slate represents a union of different generational strands of progressive politics in the city. Marta was a longtime member of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT), who broke with the party, and supported the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff. Burying the hatchet to join Boulos, who has a fresher, more militant image due to his background in housing occupation movements, suggests that progressive forces of various hues still see a political landscape polarized between pro-democracy forces on one hand and anti-democratic forces on the other. The fact that these currents are associated, respectively, with Lula and former president Jair Bolsonaro means that the São Paulo race will carry profound national weight.

Highlights

• ECONOMIC INEQUALITY. A study published this week by the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) revealed a huge increase in inequality in Brazil. According to the FGV, the income of the 15,000 richest Brazilians grew by 96 percent, which represents triple the growth in income of the rest of the population. This increase in income concentration occurred between 2017 and 2022, a period that coincides with the pandemic and Jair Bolsonaro's government. The Brazilian elite corresponds to just 0.01 percent of the country's population. The monthly income of this group corresponds to almost US$450,000 per month. The average monthly income of the rest of the population is equivalent to less than US$600 per month.

• EVANGELICAL CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS. The Lula government saw new tensions emerge in the Brazilian Congress this week. Parliamentarians from the evangelical caucus, a cohesive group made up of conservative and religious politicians, expressed their rejection of the current government's decision to reverse tax exemptions that had been granted by the previous government. The dispute concerns a provision called ADI (Interpretive Declaratory Act) No. 1, of July 2022. With it, Bolsonaro had exempted pastors from paying taxes on donations received from the faithful. The measure had electoral interest. At the time, Bolsonaro sought to attract votes from the evangelical sector for his failed re-election attempt. Lula suspended the benefit, based on an opinion by specialists in government tax policies, creating friction with a sector that the Left still faces difficulties working with.

• JUSTICE MINISTRY.  Newly appointed Minister of Justice Ricardo Lewandowski chose Mário Luiz Sarrubbo to occupy the position of National Secretary of Public Security. This position is strategic because in Brazil most matters related to police and public security are the responsibility of state governments. Sarrubbo will be the link between the federal government and state governments. The new member of Lewandowski's team was head of the São Paulo Public Ministry, where he played a prominent role in combating organized crime. He is also close to the Supreme Court Justice Alexandre Moraes, who has become one of the biggest opponents of Bolsonarism in the judiciary.

• BOLSONARO DISAGREEMENT.  This week Bolsonaro attacked the head of his party, Valdemar da Costa Neto. The former president spoke of the possibility of “implosion of the party” after the leader of the Liberal Party (PL) publicly praised Lula. Costa Neto had said that Lula is more popular than Bolsonaro because the current president is serving his third presidential term, while his rival governed only once. Bolsonaro is ineligible to run for public office due to a court decision, but he is still the most influential figure on the far right. He is affiliated with the PL, but has no historical links with the party, which functions as an occasional stronghold for the most extreme sectors of national conservatism.

• MORO QUESTIONED. Another important name on the Brazilian extreme right, former Car Wash (Lava Jato) Judge Sergio Moro, also had a week of bad news. Dias Toffoli, one of the eleven members of the Supreme Court, ordered the opening of an investigation against the current senator on suspicion of fraud in a plea bargain agreement involving a politician and businessman known as Tony Garcia who says he was pressured by Moro and prosecutors to make secret recordings to incriminate others involved in the case in exchange for legal benefits. The case predates Lava Jato and the investigation has been placed under secrecy by Toffoli.

NEWS FROM CIVIL SOCIETY MOVEMENTS AND ORGANIZATIONS:

BRAZIL CONFERENCE. The community of Brazilian university students in the Boston region will hold the already traditional Brazil Conference on April 6 and 7, an event created in 2014 to bring together academics, activists, members of governments and financiers interested in debating contemporary Brazilian challenges and the ways to face them. Tickets went on sale on January 17.

OAS ASSEMBLY. The Organization of American States announced the date and location of its 54th regular session of the General Assembly, which will be held June 26 to 28, 2024 in Asunción, Paraguay.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE G20. Registration is open for the submission of suggestions and recommendations from civil society for the G20, a group of countries with the largest economies.  Brazil assumed the post of (rotating) presidency in December. The proposals are being collected by T20 (Think20), a group in charge of gathering contributions from civil society, think tanks, and research centers. Proposals must be related to one of the 36 planned subtopics and must be submitted using a specific form, available on the T20 website.

ELECTORAL RULES. Today is the deadline for civil society organizations to send suggestions for improving the Brazilian electoral system to the Superior Electoral Court TSE). The Pact for Democracy seeks to bring together and coordinate the contributions of organizations with the intention of giving greater effectiveness to proposals from the democratic forces. In the next stage, the TSE will present and debate these proposals in a series of public hearings that will take place between January 23 and 25.

Feature Article

by James N. Green and Paulo Abrão

The role of communication for Brazilian social movements

The Washington Brazil Office (WBO) issued the 100th edition of its newsletter on January 19, 2024. This is an important milestone for a communication project that is produced in Brazil and over the years has been offering an informative and analytical point of view on what is happening in the country, politically, economically and socially.

Over these hundred weeks, the WBO bulletin has established itself as a reliable information source for the complexities unfolding in Brazil. The last few years have been marked by transformative events, such as the election of a far-right government, led by the now former president Jair Bolsonaro and the return to power of the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who, after being arrested by Operation Lava Jato, had a triumphant comeback, leading a movement to reestablish democracy in the country, in the wake of the shocks of a failed coup attempt on January 8, 2023.

Understanding and explaining Brazilian political dynamics is not easy even for those who were born in the country and speak Portuguese. When it comes to transporting this reality to a foreign audience, everything becomes even more challenging.

It is not common for there to be periodic, solid, and reliable publications in English about Brazil. Foreign audiences can find sporadic information in major newspapers about key occurrences. Television stations and news agencies also offer some journalistic monitoring of events, as do some magazines, websites and specialized publications, linked to academic study centers or U.S. and European think tanks. But this is not enough for those who want to learn more about the country.

In this regard, there is a large number of academics, journalists, researchers of all types, activists, trade unionists, government officials, and congressional aides, as well as congressional representatives and senators, who want to learn more about what is taking place in Brazil through analyses that is capable of contextualizing the singularities of the Brazilian reality, while comparing or contrasting them from an international perspective to a foreign audience.

Without this contextualization, information is meaningless. Or the true meaning may actually be lost, leading the reader to reach ill-informed understandings, which can bring distortions and risks for those who need to produce analysis, knowledge and decisions in relations with Brazil, its economy, and civil society organizations operating in the country.

Over the course of these one hundred issues, the WBO has reached an audience of almost 3,000 readers. Every Friday, they receive a contextualized summary of the week’s major events in Brazil; an editorial written by André Pagliarini, assistant professor of history at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, and associate researcher at the WBO; and a weekly article written by an invited guest. That person is an expert in their field and can offer an in-depth and well-informed point of view on their research and work topics – be they regarding themes, such as the environment, gender, race, the economy, and human rights more broadly, or in specific aspects of these major themes, such as recently published analyzes regarding the Lula government's foreign policy or singularities in the functioning of the Brazilian legislative branch.

To celebrate the 100th issue of the bulletin, the WBO decided to start distributing it in Portuguese. This decision reflects an effort to collaborate not only with an English-language readership, but also to begin providing partners and allies of Brazilian civil society organizations and movements with informative material that is clear, easy to understand and free of charge. The WBO believes that good information – clear, precise and reliable – is fundamental for understanding the context in which these organizations operate. It is also essential for successful decision-making processes.

The press is important. The WBO promotes, defends, and collaborates with journalists working in radio, TV, newspapers, websites, portals and magazines, in addition to joining in the defense of their rights and collaborating with organizations in this sector. But the WBO also invests, stimulates, and promotes communication carried out by civil society organizations and movements, as a way of giving visibility and legitimacy to grassroots communication that is not always reflected faithfully in the mainstream media.

The one hundred issues of the WBO bulletin – as well as other communication products, such as the Brazil Unfiltered podcast, the website, and social networks – are concrete expressions of the principles that the organization promotes and defends. They are also practical tools to encourage cooperation, reduce distances between realities, give a voice to those who are neglected, and contribute to the production of a more diverse, plural, democratic, reliable and useful information ecosystem for all who need to understand, every week, what actually takes place in Brazil.

James N. Green and Paulo Abrão are, respectively, president of the Board of Directors and executive director of the WBO. Green is a professor of Brazilian history and culture at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and the author of 11 books about Brazil. Abrão is a Visiting Scholar at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and senior advisor to Artigo 19 for South America.

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