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Editor's Note: Pedro Brieger is an Argentine journalist and sociologist, author of several books on international issues and collaborator in publications from different countries. He is a professor of sociology at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Director of NODAL, a portal dedicated exclusively to news from Latin America and the Caribbean. He is currently a TV columnist for the Argentine channel C5N and on the program "En la Frontera" on PúblicoTV (Spain) and on radio programs for the Argentine radio stations Radio10, La Red, La Tribu and LT9-Santa Fé. Throughout his career Brieger won important awards for his informative work on Argentine radio and television.
(CNN Spanish) - Contrary to what happens in almost all the world, the presidents of the USA. and Brazil, Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, respectively, are mobilizing their followers in the streets to show that they have significant popular support, something undeniable since both were democratically elected through elections.
What is particular, in this case, is not only the fact that both consider that social isolation policies are not the most effective to combat covid-19, but have called on their supporters to continue mobilizing in the streets while the number of deaths from the pandemic.
Both countries have a vast tradition of mass popular demonstrations that have influenced their political evolution. Just to mention a few, you can remember the gigantic marches in Brazil in 1984 at the end of the dictatorship under the slogan "Diretas Ja", when the election of a president was required by direct vote. And it is impossible to forget the gigantic mobilizations in the United States against the Vietnam war.
Opponents of Trump and Bolsonaro have many reasons to go out to protest against both leaders, but they are not on the streets because they respect the health recommendations of physical distancing and know that you should not meet with other people. And they abandoned the streets. Perhaps the most emblematic case is that of Chile, where massive street protests were held against President Sebastián Piñera, which ceased almost as if by magic as soon as the covid-19 became the central axis of daily life.
These days, those who demonstrate in favor of Trump and Bolsonaro do so in the streets without masks or keeping their distance, challenging the epidemic. On the contrary, those who oppose these rulers try to obey the indications of physical isolation, do not leave their homes and use social networks to demonstrate their protest or, as in Brazil, they knock on their saucepans from windows and balconies . But these forms of protest, today, do not have the same power.
To paraphrase Bob Dylan, who more than 50 years ago wondered "how many deaths will it take until many people are known to have died," we might wonder how many deaths it will take to stop street politics, and if it is a path of no return.
Protests