Apr 07 2023 | Nº. 61

Editorial

This was a grim week marked by several violent attacks on schools in different regions of Brazil. While violence remains a fact of daily life for many Brazilians, school shootings are relatively rare, certainly compared to the United States. There have been seventeen such incidents in Brazil over the last twenty years. Recent attacks led Congresswoman Luciene Cavalcante this week to call for an official investigation into “the causes behind the recurrent violent attacks on Brazilian schools, in order to identify government omissions in prevention, investigation and redress before and after such attacks.” In an echo of political debate in the United States, responses to recent attacks polarized around ideological lines. Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, proposed mandating metal detectors and private armed guards for schools. On the other end of the spectrum, one of Lula’s cabinet ministers blamed the attack on “Bolsonaro’s culture of hate.” These tragic events have taken place in a very different context than school shootings in the United States; and yet, given the political divide in Brazil today, the resulting debate has been eerily similar. There is little consensus on the horizon regarding how to deal with such attacks. 

In hopes of toning down the country’s heated political rhetoric and focusing on a positive agenda, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva noted this week that he has been advised to talk less about adversaries like Bolsonaro and former Operation Car Wash judge and now Senator Sérgio Moro. Instead, Lula said, “I'm going to start talking about the things we're going to do from now on.” Embracing an active reformist agenda is all the more important for Lula given that Brazilians have become less optimistic about the economy in the short term. According to a new poll, for example, more than a quarter of Brazilians expect economic conditions to worsen in the months ahead. This souring attitude comes despite the fact that the new fiscal framework proposed by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad was received quite warmly by sectors of the business community, congressional leaders, and some progressive skeptics. If Haddad can deliver on the promise of his new proposal while also revising the nation’s complicated tax legislation in the months ahead, the economic picture could improve by year’s end. Such a recovery would almost certainly improve the nation’s mood and ease tempers on edge. 

Highlights

• BOLSONARO AND THE POLICE. Former President Jair Bolsonaro testified before the Federal Police in Brasília on April 4. He is formally investigated in a case involving the entry into the country of gifts worth at least three million dollars given by governments of Arab countries. The gifts are supposed to be for the Presidency of the Republic, but Bolsonaro attempted to keep them for himself without paying taxes. The former president returned to the country on March 30, after having spent three months in the United States. Bolsonaro is being investigated in 16 other lawsuits, some of which could lead to him becoming ineligible to run for public office.

• DETAILED RESEARCH. A Datafolha poll published on April 1 shows that 38 percent of respondents approve and 29 percent disapprove of Lula’s performance in his third term as president, which began three months ago. The disapproval rate is similar to that registered by the previous president, Jair Bolsonaro during the same period and is the lowest rate obtained by a president in the beginning of his term since 1985. Lula's approval rate at the beginning of his first term in 2003 was of 43 percent. At the beginning of the second term in 2007 it was 48 percent. Regarding the economy, in a December 2022 survey 20 percent said they expected a worsening scenario. Now, in April 2023, this percentage of pessimists has risen to 26 percent.

• TRAVEL TO CHINA. President Lula travels to China on April 11. The trip was initially scheduled to take place in March, but ended up being postponed because he had pneumonia. Lula will travel with a delegation of 39 politicians, including congressional representatives, senators and governors, both from those who support the government and from the opposition. The meeting with President Xi Jinping is expected to take place on April 14. The following day, the delegation travels to the United Arab Emirates, where the Brazilian government hopes to establish partnerships for infrastructure projects. The delegation is scheduled to return to Brazil on April 16.

• DIALOGUE WITH MOSCOW. Celso Amorim, the special adviser on foreign policy to the Presidency of the Republic, left Brazil on March 28 for a six-day trip to Moscow and Paris. Amorim was received at the Kremlin by President Vladimir Putin for a one-hour meeting. During the conversation, Putin confirmed that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Brasília, on April 17. In Paris, Amorim met with Emmanuel Bonne, the adviser to President Emmanuel Macron for international affairs. The purpose of the mission by Lula's adviser is to position Brazil as one of the possible intermediaries for a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine.

• EDUCATION REFORM. The Lula government is still looking for a way to promote a broad reform in the high school education to replace a model that began to be implemented in 2017 during the administration. President Michel Temer. Camilo Santana, Lula's minister of education, announced on April 4 a 60-day suspension of the changes promoted by Temer, which emphasizes preparing students for the job market. Over the next 90 days, the government will be consulting the public in order to gather proposals for a new reform of the system that serves students 15 years of age and older.

• NEW RESEARCH FELLOWS. This week the Washington Brazil Office concluded the selection of a new group of research fellows for the period from March 2023 to February 2024. Among the eighteen names selected, ten are researchers who renewed their participation for another year. Among the areas that they will be focusing on are democracy; human rights and freedom of expression; the Amazon, environment and climate change; racial equality and overcoming racism; gender and sexual diversity; the strengthening civic society and the protection of social movement, union, environmental, and indigenous leaders and journalists; socioeconomic development, sustainable development goals and the 2030 Agenda; and rights of Brazilian immigrants in the United States.

• BOOM IN MINING. James N. Green, the chairman of the WBO Board of Directors, interviews Maurício Angelo, founder of the Mining Observatory in the most recent episode of the Brazil Unfiltered podcast. Angelo talks about how the dramatic growth in the mining sector negatively affects the environment and indigenous peoples in Brazil.

Feature Article

by Global Researchers Against Fascism (GRAF)

How the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Gun Industry Messed up Democracy in Brazil 

Under President Jair Bolsonaro's administration, Brazil became a gold mine for the international gun industry. The country's 2003 Disarmament Statute was dismantled by several decrees signed by Bolsonaro and actions taken by his allies in the Congress and Senate. Their goal was to facilitate civilian access to firearms. One consequence is that the sale of guns skyrocketed in Brazil in the last few years. As gun control legislation was altered, gun culture was also reshaped due to a sophisticated method of influence that changed many Brazilians’ perception and consumption behaviour towards firearms. The Bolsonaro regime didn't reinvent the wheel. Instead, they liaised with the National Rifle Association (NRA) to learn how to apply its marketing, networking, and lobbying strategies in Brazil. Led by Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of Jair Bolsonaro's sons, the pro-gun group called Pro-Armas was born as the Brazilian version of the NRA.

To understand how Pro-Armas was created, it is important to look beyond the idea that civilian armament is simply part of the usual far-right agenda and beyond the propaganda about gun ownership as a right. The question we must ask is cui bono: which segment of the economy benefits most from gun proliferation and how is that segment pushing to change legislation. The Brazilian media has neglected this question. Both the mainstream and independent media have only gone as far as acknowledging that the Bolsonaro family has formed strong ties to the international far right, including famous characters such as Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, and the Hungarian leader Viktor Orban. But they haven't yet examined who is supporting international far-right movements and leaders—and more specifically, who is bankrolling the connection between the Bolsonaros and the American far right.

They haven't so far delivered the news. But we are here to say it: the international gun industry is bankrolling the far-right agenda in Brazil.

Through independent research available to investigative journalism, our team has utilized our backgrounds in the humanities and social sciences to observe the social media interactions of Jair Bolsonaro's sons Flavio, Carlos, and Eduardo with others connected to the gun industry. We worked to connect the digital trails they left. We have concluded that prior to the elections of 2018 they criminally conspired to get foreign support to dismantle the Disarmament Statute in the event of Bolsonaro’s election. They conspired against democracy in Brazil in conjunction with the international gun industry.

We have found signs that, from the end of 2015, the Bolsonaro family started liaising with some shooting club employees based in the United States. The employees of 88 Tactical, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, facilitated the networking with the NRA and with the international gun industry. Later, it progressed to establish a close connection with the Trump family and with Steve Bannon, who worked together to help the Bolsonaro family succeed in the 2018 elections

In October 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was elected President of Brazil. His oldest son Flavio was elected Senator, and Eduardo Bolsonaro was re-elected Congressman. In 2020, Carlos Bolsonaro was re-elected Councilman in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

In 2022, Pro-Armas supported the candidacy of senators, governors and congressional representatives. Most of them belonging to the Liberal Party (PL), the same party of Jair Bolsonaro and two of his sons, Flavio and Eduardo. Thirty-eight of them got elected, including its director Marcos Pollon to the Chamber of Deputies and the former Vice-President General Hamilton Mourao to the Senate. The Pro-Armas team, now public servants, will work for the next four years with the mission to annihilate the Disarmament Statute. Pro-Armas is supported by the gun industry. Glock and Springfield Armory are some of the international gun manufacturers that have partnership with Pro-Armas as it can be seen in the group's website. This is one piece of proof that the international gun industry is bankrolling the far right in Brazil, represented by the Bolsonaro family and their allies.

Global Researchers Against Fascism (GRAF) is an international group of independent researchers trained in the humanities and social sciences. GRAF explores connections between fascism and the gun industry, and its work with investigative journalism in different countries has contributed to dozens of articles about the relationship between firearms and fascist movements.

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