Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro talks with Defense Minister General Braga Netto (r) in Rio de Janeiro.Andre Coelho / EFE
We do not know what Brazil will be after this September 7. It is as if we are living a countdown towards something much worse than what we already live. The “we” here is the us that does not compromise with genocide, nor with the destruction of the Amazon or other ecosystems, nor with the crime of diversion of money in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, nor with corruption. in the purchase of vaccines, nor with the spread of the coronavirus to generate "herd immunity", nor with the extermination of democracy, nor with skipping the Constitution. Those of us who are not Bolsonaristas neither before Bolsonaro, nor with Bolsonaro nor after Bolsonaro. Once the "we" is established, what do we have for today?
Bolsonaro is lazy.
He has an allergy to work, as he had already demonstrated over almost 30 years as a deputy, during which he was sucking public money without approving a single project relevant to the country, and as he continued to demonstrate when he became president.
Bolsonaro likes to scream and make a handgun on the streets and on social media.
Sowing hatred, in a permanent campaign to stay first in Congress and now in Government.
Nobody has earned that much just by ranting and promoting violence, destruction and death.
More information
'Indigenous people fight (almost) alone for you', by Eliane Brum
News of a Brazil in a state of coup
Bolsonaro is possibly corrupt. There is strong evidence to suspect that Bolsonaro plugged his sons into politics to make money for the clan. It is where all the investigations into the criminal plot known as rachadinha implanted in the cabinets of their children point, where the salary of several ghost employees, collaborators linked to the Bolsonaro family, who acted as if it were a criminal organization, was pointed.
Bolsonaro is closely linked to the militias, paramilitary mafias of Rio de Janeiro. There are public statements from him and his sons praising notorious militiamen. Assassins, of course. The principal was possibly executed in a police operation. There are medals awarded to the murderous militiamen. There are conversations, there are acts and there are facts. His election accelerated the conversion of part of the police into militias, as has been shown in several episodes in the last two years and in the recent adherence to the coup demonstrations on 7 September.
Bolsonaro has the support of the greatest destroyers of the Amazon and other ecosystems, as well as its peoples: grileiros (thieves of public lands, recently benefited from the approval of the “Grilagem Law” in the Chamber of Deputies), miners illegal workers, loggers and agents of transnational companies. By “letting all the cattle pass” —expression used by former Minister of the Environment Ricardo Salles in the sense of overthrowing as many environmental laws as possible at one time—, weakening and militarizing controls, inciting the invasion of protected public lands , creating bills that allow progress on conservation areas, all supported by the broad rotten side of Congress linked to agribusiness,Bolsonaro accelerated the climb of the world's largest rainforest to the point of no return. The most recent studies already show that the forest emits more carbon than it absorbs, which means that the Amazon is beginning to become a problem rather than a solution for the climatic collapse caused by human action.
Bolsonaro led the execution of a plan to spread the coronavirus to, supposedly, obtain "herd immunity." The genocidal action was demonstrated by the study of more than 3,000 federal regulations carried out by the University of São Paulo and the NGO Conectas Human Rights. The result, to date, is almost 600,000 fewer lives, almost 600,000 people missing those who wanted them, almost 600,000 people missing the country. When Brazil reached half a million, studies carried out by the Brazilian epidemiologist Pedro Hallal, from the Federal University of Pelotas, indicated that more than 400,000 deaths could have been avoided if the Bolsonaro government had applied prevention measures. Of those, 95,000 could have been avoided if the government had bought vaccines when they were offered.That equates to the entire population of a large city. Several communications have reached the International Criminal Court against Bolsonaro for crimes of genocide and extermination, at least one of them coming from the right.
Bolsonaro should have been condemned by the Military Justice when he planned a terrorist attack in which he would set off bombs in barracks. It was not. Bolsonaro should have been held criminally and / or politically responsible for various racist, homophobic, misogynistic and incitement to violence manifestations that he carried out during his various terms as deputy. It was not. Bolsonaro should have been held criminally and politically responsible when he apologized for the torture and the torturer during the opening of the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff. It was not. Bolsonaro should already be on trial for genocide in Brazilian courts, but, protected by Augusto Aras, Bolsonaro's attorney general who shames the Republic, he is not (yet). Bolsonaro should already be undergoing impeachment,demanded by more than a hundred applications, filed by the last two presidents of the Chamber of Deputies. It's not.
Bolsonaro was gestated by the historical deformations of Brazil, especially structural racism and impunity for the crimes of the civic-military dictatorship (1964-85). Thus, since 2019, due to all the actions and omissions of the country's elites, Brazil is governed not only by the worst president in the history of our sobbing democracy, but by one of the worst human beings of all time, and that that has a lot of competition. Bolsonaro has behaved in public life as a compulsive criminal. And Bolsonaro is dangerous. Brazil today is ruled by a very dangerous man. And this September 7, he is determined to show the full potential of his hatred towards everything that is not himself.
This September 7, Bolsonaro has decided to summon his followers to terrorize the country. He has done it because it is the only strategy in which he is competent and because he is cornered. Very cornered. If he did not terrorize the country on the most symbolic "civic" date in Brazil, it is most likely that he would expose himself to large mass demonstrations that would demand his dismissal shouting "Out of genocide" and "Bolsonaro to jail." Bolsonaro has gone ahead and summoned supporters who behave like political believers to literally arm themselves and occupy the streets.
And it is that Bolsonaro arrives on September 7 with popularity in low hours, with a part of the higher courts doing (finally) its job to protect the Constitution, with the investigations of the corruption plot of the rachadinha cornering more and more their children, with the death toll from covid-19 approaching 600,000 as the delta variant rapidly infiltrates the country, with unemployment corroding the lives of more than 14 million people, with inflation rising along with the number hungry and with no miracle on the horizon for re-election in 2022. To prevent his impeachment in Congress,Bolsonaro has been feeding the deputies of the Centrão - a set of political parties without a specific ideology that aim to be close to the Executive to gain advantages - with large sums of public money. But Bolsonaro knows those of his ilk, and therefore knows that today's allies cannot be trusted.
Bolsonaro also knows that, although on September 7 he manages to produce images of large demonstrations in his favor - which he possibly will - today his supporters are a minority in Brazil. The majority of the Brazilian population, as different polls have shown, does not like Bolsonaro. What Bolsonaro controls today is a minority of equals, who were already Bolsonaristas before Bolsonaro appeared to name them. Part of it is for various reasons, which are to be found in the deformations of Brazilian democracy and the abysmal inequality of the country; On the other hand, like its base in the Amazon, it is so because it benefits widely from Bolsonaro being in power, since it increases its patrimony with land and public resources that it appropriates with the support of the federal government, turned into a militia.
Bolsonaro can also count on most of the country's economic elite, the same that created him and helped him reach the presidency. The shameful soap opera of the letters and manifestos signed by a certain "PIB" shows that they are on the side that they have always been, theirs. The country is its extraction yard and the people, cheap meat. The only difference between those who refused to say anything and those who said almost nothing is that some think that Bolsonaro has already given the benefits he had to give, he has already destroyed the rights and the laws that he had to destroy so that they can profit more, has already opened the door to iniquities hitherto unthinkable and, from now on, the shot may backfire and, instead of killing indigenous and black, it may graze their bank accounts.Others believe that the country can still be massacred a little more, that there is still a thread on the Bolsonarista hook to do some more misdeeds than the country will need decades to recover from, but that will turn a few more into billionaires. To expect something minimally decent to come out of the part of the economic elites that control the country from the hereditary captaincies motivated only by extraction and profit is to be more “naive” than those who say that they voted for Bolsonaro because they thought he was honest and that it would bring honest people to the government. Or that it would be possible to control it.To expect something minimally decent to come out of the part of the economic elites that control the country from the hereditary captaincies motivated only by extraction and profit is to be more “naive” than those who say that they voted for Bolsonaro because they thought he was honest and that it would bring honest people to the government. Or that it would be possible to control it.To expect something minimally decent to come out of the part of the economic elites that control the country from the hereditary captaincies motivated only by extraction and profit is to be more “naive” than those who say that they voted for Bolsonaro because they thought he was honest and that it would bring honest people to the government. Or that it would be possible to control it.
Bolsonaro has support, but today he is a minority. So what he has for now is to impose terror, a lesson he learned in the Army as a child, when the troops of the dictatorship hunted opponents to torture and execute them in the region where he lived, and in which he already specialized as An official member of the Army, when planning a terrorist attack and going out of his way to start a career as a deputy. In the run-up to this September 7, for Bolsonaro the most important thing was not to make a show of force, but to quell the resistance, which was organizing to occupy the streets and demand his dismissal. The most important thing was not to fill the streets with their equals, but to prevent the opposition from doing so. Without a doubt, Bolsonaro has almost succeeded.
Everything indicates that an important part of the opponents will not take to the streets this September 7 for a quite legitimate reason: the fear of dying from the bullets fired by the followers summoned by Bolsonaro, whether they are civilians or military police. We have reached that point. This is the size of the abyss. And it is increasing. The blow has already occurred, as I have written for a long time, and it is deepening day by day. What is not yet known is how far it can go. And with that Bolsonaro plays to stay in power. It threatens to go further, it threatens to end institutions bursting, and perhaps it will.A country where citizens who oppose the president cannot take to the streets to demonstrate on the most important date of the official calendar because they can be assassinated by supporters instigated by the president is no longer a democracy. It must be recognized in order to prevent the expansion of the authoritarian project.
What Bolsonaro is saying is that the little that remains of democracy in Brazil will not be able to prevent him from continuing with the ongoing coup.
This is the impasse of this September 7.
Bolsonaro is doing a test.
As Donald Trump did before, with the consequences that we know, in a country with much stronger institutions.
Bolsonaro raises the stakes.
What to do in the face of this ultimatum, in which those who lose support at the polls try to stay in power by force?
Position yourself and do what corresponds to each one. The institutions that still resist, use the constitutional power that they still have. The press, fulfilling its duty with the responsibility that corresponds to it in a democratic project, but which is often forgotten in the name of interests outside journalism. It is a crucial moment. And there is no manual to deal with it. Not even those who lived through the civic-military dictatorship are prepared to respond to the horror of having a man who behaves like a terrorist in the presidency. But that is what we are experiencing today in Brazil. The way Bolsonaro has prepared for September 7 can be considered state terrorism.
It is important to recognize that Bolsonaro has already achieved part of his goal: to avoid large demonstrations by the opposition against him. The left is divided on the convenience of going out on September 7. It is not impossible, but it is unlikely that there will be a greater number of opponents than of Bolsonaristas. With his explicit threat, Bolsonaro has already managed to distort the reality shown by the polls on the street: that today only a minority supports him. As manipulation is fundamental in its way of operating, it is preparing another: trying to pretend that it has the support of the majority of the population with the image of a crowded street and that the opposition is a minority or coward because it prefers to stay at home for fear of die from the bullets of his supporters or the militia part of the police who support him.It is likely that he will get images manipulated like this to proclaim victory in São Paulo and also in Brasilia.
It is important to understand that Bolsonaro has managed to suppress a part of the demonstrations against him with intimidation not because he is intelligent, but because he is armed. Bolsonaro has imposed and continues to impose terror on the entire population, whom by constitutional duty he should protect. Institutions should know what to do with a president who behaves like a terrorist against his own people. I hope you know.
It is not easy, as a citizen, to decide whether or not to go out on the street this September 7 against Bolsonaro. As an opinion columnist, I believe that, although it is very difficult to analyze a story that moves rapidly by a president who behaves like a terrorist, I have an ethical duty to position myself clearly. Not as the owner of the truth, but trying to do my best with the available facts. I'd rather be wrong by action than by omission. And I know that, the next day or even the night of the same day, several rearview analysts will appear to make the perfect analysis of the facts, the analysis of who knows and who understood and predicted and predicted and concluded and got it right. Not as if they were analyzing what happened, which is totally legitimate, but stating that they had already foreseen everything that was going to happen,they just preferred not to tell anyone so as not to spoil the surprise.
I deeply respect the movements and people who advocate taking to the streets on September 7 in the name of the resistance to Bolsonaro and his authoritarian government. And I deeply respect the argument that the poorest - and in Brazil most of the poorest are black - have already been murdered on the peripheries for a long time. Even so, I think that at this moment it would be better if Bolsonaro found himself with empty streets. That his opponents, who are now the majority, stay at home or gather in spaces where they have the possibility to protect themselves. This time we are not facing political adversaries, but a president who behaves like a terrorist, with the state machinery in his favor and a part of the police acting like a militia. It is something else. I don't think you have to put your body in front of armed fanatics.Nothing may happen. Anything can happen. I use the precautionary principle. It is enough that one of Bolsonaro's followers is willing to show what he came to, is determined to become a hero, for a tragedy to occur.
There is more than enough evidence that the security forces, which should uphold the integrity of citizens and guarantee the constitutional right to demonstrate, have partly become militias. There are more than enough facts to show that a part of the Military Police does not obey the governors. There is little guarantee that police forces will be willing to protect those who oppose Bolsonaro on September 7. And thus, opposition demonstrations run the risk of - with whatever pretext, and there is always one - also facing police officers firing at citizens.
Democracy exists so that laws — not guns — regulate relationships. Bolsonaro has urged his supporters to cock their guns to destroy the Constitution. Through terror, the president has taken over the field and determined the rules of September 7. I think it may be more powerful at this time to show - and declare - to the world that the constitutional right to demonstrate has been hijacked in Brazil for those who oppose Bolsonaro. And he has been kidnapped through threats and coercion. It must be established and recognized within and outside the country. Bolsonaro (yet) cannot choose when we demonstrate against him, but he is choosing when we cannot, by appropriating September 7 by imposing terror.
I respect those who risk dying so that Bolsonaro and his gang do not reign alone in the streets on September 7, but I believe that this country already has too many martyrs. This country produces martyrs every day. To confront Bolsonaro and everything he represents, we need living people. To refound the country we need living people. The fight is today and it will have to continue on the 8th and beyond. The fight, which for many is always, this time will be long for almost everyone.
What we call the Brazilian people is not made up of cowards. On the contrary. It is the result of a monumental daily resistance against all forms of death. The greatest example of this monumental resistance is, at this moment, the camp of the native peoples in Brasilia. The indigenous people, who have resisted extermination for literally 500 years, have come to the center of power in recent weeks to follow the judgment of the "time milestone", one of the most perverse theses in a history marked by perversion. According to the “temporary milestone”, only the peoples who were in their territory on October 5, 1988, the date the Brazilian Constitution was promulgated, would have the right to their ancestral lands.But if the peoples were not on their lands on that date, it is because they had to abandon them so that they would not be killed by grileiros, illegal miners, loggers or transnational companies. They had to abandon their land so they wouldn't murder their entire community, and now lawmakers claim they lost the right to their home because they weren't there.
As the trial in the Federal Supreme Court has been prolonged, part of the indigenous leaders are still camped out. And more have arrived for the indigenous women's march, which begins on September 8. It is essential that the institutions that still remain in place guarantee the protection of the camp against Bolsonarist attacks, and that the press remain vigilant, ready to inform the world of any attempted massacre of indigenous peoples.
The daily resistance to Bolsonaro and the Bolsonaristas is everywhere. But those on the front lines, not just on September 7, but for a long time, need more support. In recent weeks, some of the bravest people performing today in Brazil have made themselves safe from being killed, as the recent presidential demonstrations on September 7 have further escalated the violence, especially in the Amazon. In Brazil, the networks that society weaves to protect those who head the list of those threatened with death are expanding. It has not been easy for any of these people to decide to temporarily leave the territory to which they belong, where they suffer attacks and take risks day after day. But they have understood that to fight you have to be alive.Strategic withdrawals are a test of courage and intelligence, only brutes win by brute force. The fight is far from over and we need all the people. If there is something that Brazil does not need, it is more corpses. We cannot allow them to use us to justify the violence that Bolsonaro and his people have chosen as a way of life and the reproduction of power.
September 7 has always been praised by the oppressors. During the dictatorship, schools had to parade through the homeland, a homeland degraded by the coup generals, while opponents were tortured and executed by state agents in the buildings of the state organs and obeying a state policy. Let's leave the date of our tragicomic independence for the violent. This September 7, in which the descendant of those who founded a nation on the extermination, first of the natives and then of the enslaved blacks, announced independence. This September 7, in which King Pedro I declared that Brazil became independent from Portugal while traveling by mule prostrated by diarrhea. Our symbols are different and reverberate a resistance of 500 years.
Occupying the streets is vital to any resistance movement.
It is a time to meet, it is a time to declare principles, it is a time to bond.
It is a time to build community and fight for the common.
However, this September 7 there is a president who behaves like a terrorist who determines the rules.
And it controls the machinery of the state.
We, who oppose Bolsonaro, do not fight for just one day.
But every day.
We will be on our feet on September 7.
And we will be on our feet the following days.
The main act of resistance in Brazil is to stay alive to continue fighting.
Eliane Brum
is a writer, reporter and documentarian.
Author of seven books, including Brazil, builder of ruins: um olhar sobre o País, from Lula to Bolsonaro.
Web: elianebrum.com.
E-mail: elianebrum.coluna@gmail.com.
Twitter, Instagram and Facebook: @brumelianebrum.
Translation of Meritxell Almarza
Subscribe here to the
EL PAÍS América
newsletter
and receive all the information keys on the region's current affairs