Bolsonaristas resort to violence in Brasilia, one month before Lula's inauguration
WBO Press Release 15 November 2022
Coup Plotters and Violent Demonstrators Need to be Stopped by the Police and Held Accountable by the Courts
International Community Must Remain Vigilant at this Decisive Moment for Brazil
Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro burned buses, stoned cars, fired rockets, threw sticks and stones, and attacked a Federal Police post in the capital of Brasília the night of December 12. The wave of violence began after the certification ceremony of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as the next president of Brazil.
Lula surpassed Bolsonaro in the first round of the presidential elections held on October 2 and defeated him in the second round on October 30, 2022. The leftist Workers’ Party candidate received two million more votes than his extreme-right rival, who sought re-election. Lula's inauguration is scheduled for January 1, 2023. The certification ceremony, held on Monday, December 12, is a previous step in this process, which formalizes the electoral results and certifies that the PT candidate may be sworn in as Brazil’s new president.
However, supporters of President Bolsonaro refuse to accept defeat. Since the election, they have blocked roads and camped in front of military installations, asking the armed forces to carry out a coup d'état and set up a dictatorship to prevent Bolsonaro from leaving office and Lula from governing. The president himself launches messages of veiled support for the coup plotters and spreads false information about non-existent fraud in the electronic voting system, whose reliability has been reaffirmed by the Electoral Justice and by international observers.
On December 12, the coup movement led to episodes of violence in the capital. They tried to push a burning bus off of an overpass and shattered windows at a Federal Police post, just over a kilometer from the hotel where Lula was staying.
Brasília's security is the responsibility of Ibaneis Rocha, the governor of the Federal District, who is from the Brazilian Democratic Movement. He said he gave orders for the police to arrest those involved in the illegal attacks, but the Secretariat of Public Security, a subordinate of Rocha’s, says that no one was arrested. The discrepancy raises suspicions that state police forces sympathetic to Bolsonaro's militaristic tendencies may encourage the coup movement in the country in the absence of civil authorities’ intervention to stop the violence.
On Thursday, December 15, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered that the Federal Police carry out more than one hundred search and seizure operations and four arrests of radical Bolsonarists in eight states and in the Federal District. At one of the addresses, rifles with long-range sights were seized.
The WBO's Analysis of the Situation
The Washington Brazil Office (WBO) draws attention to the risk that the coup movement, led by Bolsonaro, represents for Brazil and for democracy.
“It's been a while since we warned of the danger of these two months that separate the election from the inauguration. In this period, Bolsonaro is still in office and exercises power. It is extremely worrying that the most important person in the Brazilian presidential system continues to adopt an ambiguous stance or, at times, clearly and openly encourages a coup d'état in the country. We need the international community to pay attention to what is happening in Brazil and clearly express concern in favor of a legal and peaceful transition.”
James N. Green
Chairman of the WBO Board of Directors
Professor of Brazilian History and Culture, Brown University“Now we need an institutional response that is clear and committed to respect democracy. Violent demonstrators must be restrained by the police and prosecuted by the courts within the law. Any omission about this illegal move now is sure to bring about bigger problems in the future. Democracy presupposes respect for elections and the electoral result. It presupposes respect for the rites of a democratic transition of power and also respect for institutions and laws. It is not possible for coup leaders to hide behind a false defense of the right to free speach to attack democracy indefinitely.”
Paulo Abrão
Executive Director of the WBO
The WBO’s Actions
This year, the WBO undertook efforts so that Brazilian civil society organizations informed U.S. government officials and policymakers about the current threat to democracy, the precarious political environment, and the attacks on human rights in Brazil. As part of this effort, representatives of nineteen Brazilian organizations traveled to Washington in July to meet with congressmen, the State Department and local civil society organizations.
Since then, U.S. congressional representatives and senators who received this delegation have made at least three formal requests to President Joe Biden that he use his prerogatives over U.S. foreign policy to inform Bolsonaro that the U.S. government would not accept under any circumstances challenges to Brazilian democracy. In addition, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a motion to this effect.
“The defense of Brazilian democracy does not only matter for Brazil. A country with these dimensions, with this weight, and with this importance is inevitably interconnected with others. It is in this sense that international actors should show that they value Brazilian democracy and that they are vigilant in this regard, in solidarity and in support of those who fight to preserve democracy within Brazil,” said Green.
