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No, the madness has mutated.
Perhaps, like you, a mob of insane conspiracy theorists supporting defeated ex-President Jair Bolsonaro flew out of Brasilia on Sunday after defeating the three pillars of Brazilian democracy with such maddening ease. It was my reaction to the first jarring images that appeared.
The destruction and violence inflicted on the presidential, supreme court and congressional offices by marauders dressed in the familiar colors of yellow, green and blue in the South American country recall, of course, the mayhem and massacre of January 6th. At the US Capitol in 2021.
It was another nightmare.
Once again we see thugs disguised as flag-waving patriots trying to sabotage the will of the millions of enlightened Brazilians who elected Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. I felt a mixture of sadness, regret, and seething anger at having to look helpless. Inaugurated as president on October 30, 2022.
i’m not brazilian Yet how offended I was by the shameless audacity of the morose, tantrum-prone Ruby Bunch, who believes he enjoys the right and license to overturn the outcome of a free and fair election. I was surprised.
I think it proves that the strong psychological residue of January 6 continues to haunt many people outside the United States despite the time and distance.
I will not elaborate on the impudent motives of the disaffected army who organized the rebellion.
But it would be unwise to dismiss Sunday’s discordant events as a fleeting spasm of pent-up frustration. Like the 6th of January, the Brazilian uprising was a serious and concerted effort to re-elected a defeated authoritarian demagogue as president.
President da Silva seems to recognize this. His decisive action to swiftly quell the rebellion without suffering a single casualty among the “fascist fanatics”, as he described it, marked a moment of urgency with determination and restraint. welcomed
Beyond the hundreds of arrests, President da Silva said the powerful players and forces behind the failed coup were to blame if Brazil’s nascent democracy was to weather the current and future storms. You seem to understand what you have to do.
Towards that difficult but necessary end, it is the duty of democracies, young and old, to confront such brazen lawlessness within the bounds of the rule of law. President da Silva also understands this obligation.
Dangerous turbulence in Brazil last weekend should also give pause to those who have tried to minimize the effects and gravity of January 6, as angry “protests” have failed. The fear that what happened that day, in that place, will serve as a template for others to repeat another day, in another place, has proven prescient.
Jair Bolsonaro’s rebels took cues from Donald Trump’s rebels. The wild and ugly consequences of their ideological solidarity were shown in graphic and disturbing fashion on Sunday.
Another lesson that should permeate the short-sighted consciousness of the leaders of so-called “liberal” democracies is that you should not get along with fascists.
But that’s what they’ve done for years of shame in their dealings with Trump and Bolsonaro, in many cases dictating two autocratic trade deals so as not to scrap lucrative bilateral or multilateral trade deals. It was done under the narrow-minded name of keeping dictators happy.
Bolsonaro and his family have been under siege on Sunday for years before the 2022 vote by claiming the country’s “elite” will rig the election to deny him a second term. As a result, he warned that Brazil would have “a worse problem” than the United States endured on January 6.
he got his wish.
Today, the same presidents and prime ministers who chose to turn a blind eye to their selfish “national interests” while Bolsonaro attacked democratic norms and institutions are the same democratic norms and institutions threatened by previous presidents. hastened to protect the and his fierce allies.
Hypocrisy is both blatant and painful.
Not long ago, Canada’s then Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland stood side by side with Bolsonaro in Davos, Switzerland, deciding that the 12 “democracies” that make up the so-called Lima Group would control the government. I remember when we happily announced the Changes in Venezuela – without consent of Venezuelans.
In early 2019, Freeland and Anti-Democratic Corporation endorsed opposition leader Juan Guaidó (who unilaterally proclaimed Venezuela’s “interim president”) as the country’s “legitimate” leader.
A hilarious Tete a Tete video shows Freeland smiling and nodding like Bolsonaro (an embodiment of democratic affinity like Alexis de Tocqueville), the president of Colombia. argued that Maduro’s replacement meant Venezuelans would be “liberated from dictatorship.”
Of her condescension, Freeland said, “It was a big day for Venezuela,” with Canada joining Brazil to give instructions to the Venezuelans who are trying to run the country whether they agree or not. said it came out.
Now Deputy Prime Minister Freeland and her boss, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, are probably not too keen on recalling their dizzying alliance with Canada’s Bolsonaro these days. Brazil could demand the extradition of Bolsonaro from Florida to face potential indictments stemming from the cessation of riots that the country’s leader has described as “terrorist” acts.
So Canada and other democracy-loving democracies that appeased Bolsonaro are busy rewriting history to erase appeasement and confirm President da Silva’s unconditional kinship with Brazil.
How nice and convenient.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial attitude of Al Jazeera.
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