Through Contacts and International Allies, WBO Warned of the Risk of a Coup in Brazil
WBO Press Release
January 8 2024
Brazilian think tank warned the international community about attacks on democracy in Brazil
Coordination with social movements was essential to stopping coup plotters in Brasília
The Washington Brazil Office (WBO) is one of the Brazilian organizations that was on the front line in the defense of democracy and against a coup d'état attempted by followers of the now former president Jair Bolsonaro on January 8, 2022. Through contacts in international events, the WBO alerted government officials, parliamentary representatives, the press, academics, and leaders of civil society in different countries about what was happening in Brazil at that time and in the months leading up to January 8, 2023.
The WBO's work began at least six months earlier with the organization of a delegation made up of representatives of Brazilian civil society movements and organizations who traveled to Washington to inform U.S. authorities about Bolsonaro's unfounded attacks on the Brazilian electoral system and to ask that these foreign interlocutors recognize the result of that election as legitimate, regardless of who was the winner at the polls.
The risk of a coup movement like January 8 was put on the radar of the international community, in part, through the efforts of the WBO and its more than fifty affiliates. In addition to the delegation's visit to Washington, a similar initiative was also carried out in Europe with the presence of representatives from eleven Brazilian organizations in capitals such as Brussels (headquarters of the main bodies of the European Union) and Geneva (headquarters of various branches of the United Nations), in addition to other European capitals.
"The articulation of Brazilian civil society was fundamental in forming a very cohesive bloc around the defense of democracy in Brazil. When January 8 came, we had international allies who were already very well informed about the context of the attacks on democracy in the country. We had maintained very high-level meetings with U.S. and European parliamentarians, representatives of foreign chancelleries, and international organizations," said James N. Green, president of the WBO Board of Directors.
"The work at that time was fundamental, but it is not finished. The defense of a true, vibrant, and participatory democracy depends not only on the holding of clean and periodic elections, party plurality, and respect for the rule of law, but also on respect of human rights for Black people, women, and indigenous peoples and the defense of the environment. Our work today is not only to defend democracy as such, but also to strengthen the struggle and international connections of our partners in civil society, who work hard to improve this democracy that has been defended with great difficulty," said Paulo Abrão, executive director of the WBO.
The WBO considers it essential that Brazil advances in the process of holding the material and intellectual authors responsible for all stages of this serious attack on democracy. The organization also defends that the memory of January 8 be treated as a permanent policy to build means so that this never happens again in the country.
Read the announcements about the Brazilian delegation's visit to Washington and Europe:
Conclusions of the Brazilian delegation in Washington in defense of democracy in Brazil
American Senate unanimously approves resolution in defense of democracy in Brazil
