Brazil is interesting because it has a population with European roots in the southern half of the country; and a very different population with indigenous roots in the northern half. The southern half votes more conservative, and the northern half votes communist.
It is a huge, populous country with enormous potential. However, that potential is being thwarted with the communist takeover that has taken place. It has been alleged that this takeover was facilitated via fraudulent means. This is a pretty fascinating interview about the election that took place over the weekend:
I visited Brazil 10 years ago. Ii is a beautiful and friendly country. I certainly hope some force will remove Lua from power. His election is contrary to a conservative swing in other Latin and South American governments.
Consuelo Dieguez, a journalist who has written a book about Brazil’s burgeoning right, said she had initially been one of those giggling at the eccentric demonstrations of allegiance to Bolsonaro from predominantly elderly supporters.
“At first I thought it was all rather funny. [I wondered] where have all these lunatics come from?”
But as the weeks went by, and the protesters dug in, Dieguez’s amusement turned to distress. “I still think these people are bonkers but I no longer think it’s funny,” she said.
Dieguez’s angst stemmed not from the scale of the mobilisations, which involve only a sliver of the 58 million voters who backed Bolsonaro’s failed campaign against Lula. “If all of Bolsonaro’s voters had hit the streets, goodness knows what might have happened to this country … there’d have been a rebellion,” she said.
Nor did she see any risk of the military actually staging a pro-Bolsonaro coup d’état. “Bolsonaro’s finished. Everyone’s abandoning him,” she said.
What disturbed Dieguez was the level of extremism on show at the rallies.
The risks of such radicalisation exploded into view this month when hardcore Bolsonaristas rampaged through the capital, Brasília, burning buses and cars, in what some saw as an attempt to spark a 6 January-style insurrection. Security has been stepped up to shield Lula and his supporters from similar violence at his swearing-in ceremony.
But the Soldier and the Patriot saw nothing radical or anti-democratic about their actions, and denied being “vandals” or “crooks”.
“We’re family people … we all feel aggrieved and this is our cry for help so the armed forces come and intervene,” said the Soldier, urging a military junta to seize power to purge Brazilian politics of leftist kleptomaniacs.
As the sun beat down on their roadside protest camp, they regurgitated a stream of falsehoods and insinuations about how Bolsonaro was robbed of re-election by fraud-riddled voting machines and tyrannical supreme court judges.
“Bolsonaro was the real winner,” the Patriot declared.
“We want either a new election or for President Bolsonaro to take charge,” said the Soldier, hailing a “historic” patriotic movement he claimed had attracted 10,000 locals to the gates of the jungle infantry brigade where he stood.
On the afternoon the Guardian visited only about a dozen remained, sat on plastic garden chairs and in hammocks and surrounded by banners reading: “Brazil Was Stolen”, “Civil Resistance” and “We fervently want peace”.
Fred, I have relatives there, the vast majority of whom I don’t know.
This is a tragedy unfolding. Lula and his leftist Supreme Court have already come down hard on dissenters, and it will be even worse with this new election. I hope there is a solution.