Bolsonarists during the takeover of the Presidential Palace in Brasilia / AFP
SAINT PAUL
The attempted coup perpetrated by thousands of radical Bolsonaro supporters exposed the climate of social division in Brazil and has tested the leadership of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva against an increasingly isolated Jair Bolsonaro.
The assault on the headquarters of Parliament, the Presidency and the Supreme Court resulted in a new show of force by all the institutions, which responded with a single voice to the “terrorist” and “coup” acts of January 8 in Brasilia.
There were four hours of chaos, looting and vandalism in the heart of Brazilian democracy. “This is an episode of unprecedented proportions in the history of Brazilian politics,” said political scientist Rogério Arantes, a professor at the University of São Paulo (USP) specializing in constitutionalism.
INSTITUTIONAL UNIT
With barely a week in power, Lula acted surgically to put an end to an insurrection that left a very negative external image and 1,500 detainees (of whom some 600 were released yesterday for “humanitarian reasons”, since they were people with health, mothers with children or the elderly).
He decreed federal intervention in the security area of Brasilia and organized emergency meetings with the heads of the Legislative and Judicial branches and with the 27 governors of the country. Almost all attended, including those aligned with former president Bolsonaro, such as Rio de Janeiro’s Claudio Castro; and San Pablo, Tarcísio de Freitas, who was Minister of Infrastructure during his administration.
While on Sunday the coup leaders climbed the ramp of the Planalto Palace – the seat of government – and destroyed everything in their path, on Monday, Lula lowered it holding onto the arm of the Supreme Court judges, the ministers of his government and the governors regional.
The rule of law against barbarism. That symbolic march ended at the headquarters of the Supreme Court, where the greatest damage was recorded.
For Marco Teixeira, professor of Political Science at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) study center, Lula emerges strengthened and “with more legitimacy” by positioning himself as a counterpoint to a “clearly isolated” Bolsonarism.
However, the crisis does not end in the frustrated coup on Sunday. The most radical Bolsonarism has shown muscle on the street. In the days following Lula’s victory in the October elections, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters blocked hundreds of routes and set up camps at the gates of the barracks that remained until Monday, when the Supreme Court ordered their dismantling.
During the two months that they were in place, with the consent of the Army, misinformation, fanaticism, and conspiracy theories circulated, fueled by the silence of Bolsonaro, who still does not admit his defeat at the polls.
They even went as far as placing an explosive in a tanker truck near the Brasilia airport, on the eve of Lula’s inauguration.
It was the breeding ground that led to the attempted coup, in a context of great polarization that was clearly seen in the second presidential round, when Lula narrowly won Bolsonaro (50.9 – 49.1 percent). .
The leftist leader assumed the commitment to “pacify” the country, although according to Arantes he will have “great difficulties” to achieve that objective given the prevailing political division.
In addition, the expert stressed that as long as the financing networks of these coup groups are not dismantled, “the country is subject to new attacks” such as the one on January 8. However, just as he showed the ability to mobilize, extreme Bolsonaro left Bolsonaro between a rock and a hard place.
The retired captain came away with enormous political capital from the elections, but his going to the US on December 30 without a return ticket, and his tepid rejection of the vandalism experienced in Brasilia undermine his options to lead the opposition.
In addition, the moderate right “is not going to want to have Bolsonaro as its leader” either, since it would reduce their electoral spectrum, according to Arantes. Several very close allies have already distanced themselves, among them the São Paulo governor, Tarcísio de Freitas, who sentenced: “No one wants to go down in history as a coup plotter.” (EFE)
