[News] Jair Bolsonaro’s First 53 Days as President of Brazil Have Been a Resounding, Scandalous Failure

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://theintercept.com/2019/02/22/jair-bolsonaro-presidency-brazil/


  Jair Bolsonaro’s First 53 Days as President of Brazil Have Been a
  Resounding, Scandalous Failure

Andrew Fishman, Alexandre de Santi 
<https://theintercept.com/staff/alexandresanti/> - February 22, 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Something peculiar is_ going on between Brazilian President Jair 
Bolsonaro and his vice president, Gen. Hamilton Mourão.

Late last month, Bolsonaro was scheduled for a surgical procedure to 
remove the colostomy bag he’d been using since being stabbed ahead of 
the presidential election. Before he went under the knife, Bolsonaro 
told his advisers that he would not turn over the powers of the 
presidency to Mourão while in surgery. A few days earlier, Mourão had 
made the most of the four days he spent as acting president while 
Bolsonaro was in Davos, Switzerland, by publicly undercutting his boss 
on a series of key issues in interviews with the press.

Members of Bolsonaro’s cabinet were “irritated” by his decision not to 
bestow Mourão with presidential powers, Época magazine reported 
<https://epoca.globo.com/guilherme-amado/decisao-de-bolsonaro-de-nao-passar-presidencia-para-mourao-na-cirurgia-irrita-militares-23396476>. 
And the unofficial word coming from Bolsonaro’s office was that he 
hadn’t been “properly advised on the delicacy of the surgery.” 
Eventually, he would reverse course and signed over executive powers for 
48 hours — but not the full 17 days he would spend in the hospital.

The whole saga nicely encapsulates Bolsonaro’s young presidency: 
mistrust sowing internal division; a leak; the unmasking of the 
president’s ignorance; and then, eventually, a forced reversal.

Bolsonaro rose to power thanks to a hodgepodge far-right coalition 
<https://theintercept.com/2018/10/05/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-election-stabbinng/> 
that came together just long enough to get the 63-year-old politician 
elected president of Brazil. But that coalition has spent all 53 days of 
his tenure in office eating itself alive. The rhetoric of Bolsonaro’s 
campaign crashed into the reality of his government with resounding 
thunder. Indecisiveness; power struggles leaked to the media; 
revelations of a son’s links to an organized crime boss; and multiple 
corruption allegations have dogged the president as he walked back 
campaign promises and stumbled through the turbulent, sometimes 
nonsensical, early days of the new administration.

So much has happened over the last 7 1/2 weeks that it’s impossible to 
take stock of it all. But by looking through the wreckage, perhaps you 
can get a sense of Brazil’s political life as of late.


      The Backstabber

As Bolsonaro World quickly melts into a puddle, Mourão apparently 
spotted an opening — the latest chapter in a roller coaster of political 
controversies for the vice president. In 2015, Mourão, at the time an 
active duty general, was relieved of his command for publicly 
criticizing then-President Dilma Rousseff and praising the man 
responsible for her brutal torture during the military dictatorship. In 
2017, he suggested 
<https://congressoemfoco.uol.com.br/especial/noticias/general-que-defendeu-golpe-vai-coordenar-frente-de-candidatos-militares/> 
in a speech that it might soon be time for another military coup in 
Brazil. The defense minister and army chief of staff at the time felt 
that Mourão’s opinions were too popular 
<https://politica.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,jungmann-e-exercito-decidem-nao-punir-formalmente-general-mourao,70002010412> 
among the rank and file to risk punishing him. Nonetheless, Mourão 
retired soon thereafter to pursue 
<https://br.noticias.yahoo.com/general-que-sugeriu-intervencao-militar-anuncia-frente-de-candidatos-militares-171830182.html> 
a political career.

Before the campaign, Bolsonaro and Mourão had no relationship to speak 
of. The general was chosen mere hours before the deadline 
<https://theintercept.com/2018/12/18/mourao-presidente-prtb-mentor-vice-presidente/> 
for parties to lock in their nominees, after many other candidates were 
discarded or had turned down Bolsonaro’s offer. Bolsonaro seemed to have 
intentionally chosen someone even more brutish than even himself. Mourão 
even had the added benefit of being a general who still supports the 
1964 military coup d’état; for leftists traumatized by that dark period 
of history, the thought of such a man assuming the presidency again 
effectively neuters the option of one day impeaching Bolsonaro 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2018/10/antidoto-contra-impeachment-mourao-coleciona-polemicas.shtml>.

In the middle of the campaign last year, Mourão said that modern 
Brazilian culture inherited “indolence” from Indigenous peoples and 
“trickery” from Africans. He spoke out against the “13th month 
salary,” a much-beloved, guaranteed additional payment that salaried 
employees receive at the end of the year — and a constitutional right.

Yet since taking office, Mourão has moderated his tone, presenting 
himself as a rare voice of reason. Mourão recently said that Brazil is 
not considering 
<https://oglobo.globo.com/mundo/mourao-diz-que-por-ora-brasil-nao-pensa-em-mudar-embaixada-para-jerusalem-23408864> 
moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and that increasing access to 
firearms will not reduce gun violence 
<https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2019/01/21/mourao-diz-que-objetivo-do-decreto-sobre-posse-de-armas-nao-e-reduzir-violencia.ghtml> 
— both contradictions of Bolsonaro’s positions. He has spoken in favor 
<https://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/mourao-defende-que-aborto-seja-uma-opcao-da-mulher-23419002> 
of abortion rights and been exceedingly polite 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/colunas/monicabergamo/2019/02/mourao-fara-maratona-de-entrevistas-apesar-de-pressao-por-discricao.shtml> 
and available to reporters. When the leftist member of Congress Jean 
Wyllys fled the country instead of taking his seat, citing threats to 
his life, Bolsonaro and his sons celebrated. Mourão told the press 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/01/mourao-ve-fala-generica-de-jean-wyllys-mas-aponta-possivel-crime-a-democracia.shtml> 
that “those who threaten parliamentarians are committing a crime against 
democracy.”


      The Conspiracy Theorists

Mourão’s independent streak has been viewed as unabashed treachery by 
the true believers in Bolsonaro’s inner circle. This is 
especially so for the president’s three adult sons, Eduardo, Carlos, and 
Flávio, who all hold elected office, as well as the band of unhinged 
political outsiders whose support they have cultivated over the years.

Jair Bolsonaro’s sons have long since firmly set their sights on Mourão 
— and have made repeated attempts to silence him. When those efforts 
proved unsuccessful, they even enlisted the help of the unofficial 
“guru” of the administration, the conspiracy-peddling 
pseudo-intellectual Olavo de Carvalho, who has a YouTube channel and a 
large, influential far-right following. Carvalho has called 
<https://www.poder360.com.br/governo/olavo-de-carvalho-diz-que-mourao-e-uma-vergonha-para-as-forcas-armadas/> 
Mourão a “despicable charlatan.” (Carvalho, it should be noted, has 
questioned 
<https://noticias.uol.com.br/ciencia/ultimas-noticias/redacao/2019/01/09/o-que-a-ciencia-diz-sobre-a-terra-ser-o-centro-do-universo.htm> 
whether the Earth revolves around the Sun and claimed 
<https://theintercept.com/2018/11/17/youtubers-bolsonaro-nando-moura-diego-rox-bernardo-kuster-fake-news/> 
that Pepsi is sweetened with the cells of aborted fetuses, among other 
nonsensical musings.)

And U.S. President Donald Trump’s former top adviser Steve Bannon has 
also gotten in on the action. Bannon, who has called Carvalho a “hero,” 
said 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/world/2019/02/steve-bannon-brazils-vice-president-is-useless-and-unpleasant.shtml> 
Mourão is “unpleasant and steps out of line.” The vice president deftly 
responded 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mundo/2019/02/sou-um-cara-legal-po-diz-mourao-sobre-critica-de-estrategista-de-trump.shtml>, 
“I’m a cool guy, dude.”

Bannon, for his part, has become increasingly involved in Jair 
Bolsonaro’s Brazil. As of last September, during the presidential race, 
Bannon was enthusiastic about the then-candidate, but couldn’t remember 
his name 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/21/steve-bannon-i-want-to-drive-a-stake-through-the-brussels-vampire-populist-europe> and 
referred to him as “Botolini.” Since then, the bonds between the 
American far-right ideologue and his Brazilian counterparts have 
strengthened. This month, Bannon named 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mundo/2019/02/bannon-anuncia-eduardo-bolsonaro-como-lider-sul-americano-de-movimento-de-ultradireita.shtml> 
Eduardo Bolsonaro as the South American leader of “The Movement,” 
his international alliance to combat “globalism.”

Eduardo Bolsonaro took a trip in January to the U.S., where he met with 
Carvalho and Bannon. And he brought along one of his father’s favorite 
purveyors of fake, far-right news: Allan dos Santos, who happens to be a 
Carvalho sycophant. Santos is best known for his feverish, babbling 
rants, full of such pearls of wisdom as 
<https://twitter.com/maestrobogs/status/1084066399516086273?lang=en>, “Smoking 
is bad. I hope you don’t masturbate. Because my smoking doesn’t kill 
neurons, but now you’re jerking off, you’re fucking yourself. I die 
smart. You die dumb.”

The bedrock of the Bolsonaro political movement is formed by men and 
women of similar genius, and some of their fever dreams are making it to 
the floor of Congress. One of the newest representatives from Jair 
Bolsonaro’s Social Liberal Party, Márcio Labre, introduced a bill 
<https://www.vice.com/pt_br/article/gyayxj/deputado-do-psl-nao-sabe-como-metodos-contraceptivos-funcionam-mas-quer-proibi-los-por-lei> 
on the first full day of his new job to outlaw the sale and use of 
contraceptives, including the pill, intrauterine devices, and the 
morning-after pill — all of which he considers to be “micro abortions.” 
After public backlash and ridicule, he pulled the proposal, but other 
similarly outlandish proposals remain in play.


      The Band of Thieves

The Social Liberal Party was left reeling following the revelation of 
two 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/02/partido-de-bolsonaro-criou-candidata-laranja-para-usar-verba-publica-de-r-400-mil.shtml> 
schemes 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/02/ministro-de-bolsonaro-criou-candidatos-laranjas-para-desviar-recursos-na-eleicao.shtml> 
that stink to high heaven of corruption. The stories, in the Folha de 
São Paulo newspaper, told of how the party allocated $182,000 in public 
funding to the congressional campaigns of five unknown candidates — who 
ended up receiving almost no votes. Much of the money, according to 
official receipts, was spent at companies linked to top party officials. 
The federal police opened an investigation 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/02/pf-abre-investigacao-e-chama-candidata-laranja-do-psl-para-depor.shtml> 
last Tuesday. Jair Bolsonaro and his party campaigned first and foremost 
on combating corruption in politics 
<https://theintercept.com/2018/12/09/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-cabinet/> — 
which they conveniently framed as a problem created by the center-left 
Workers’ Party and its allies — thereby making this a serious challenge 
to their credibility.

The episode provoked a major crisis in the government. Gustavo Bebianno 
was the party president during the election and was then appointed as 
the secretary general of the presidency, an important cabinet-level 
position in Bolsonaro’s administration. Bebianno quickly became a 
central figure of administration infighting: He is the mortal foe 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2018/12/faixa-preta-bebianno-quer-ser-reconhecido-agora-como-gestor.shtml> 
of Carlos Bolsonaro, one of the president’s sons. Officially a Rio de 
Janeiro city council member, Carlos Bolsonaro has unofficially worked 
behind the scenes for years as the president’s social media guru — 
earning his father’s trust and support. Bebianno, however, used his 
influence to block Carlos Bolsonaro from gaining an official role in the 
administration.

    “I need to apologize to Brazil for making Bolsonaro’s candidacy
    viable. I never imagined that he would be such a weak president.”

Carlos Bolsonaro used the scandal over disbursements to irrelevant 
candidates to strike back. He conspired to have his father sacrifice the 
party leader to the outrage over the episode, going so far as to “leak” 
part of a conversation between his dad and the minister; he used the 
recording to publicly label Bebianno a “liar,” a remark his father later 
endorsed 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/02/em-reuniao-no-planalto-ministro-diz-a-bebianno-que-ele-fica-no-governo.shtml>. 
After days of back-and-forth speculation and negotiations, Bebianno was 
finally fired 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/02/bebianno-e-demitido-e-caso-dos-laranjas-do-psl-leva-a-primeira-queda-de-ministro-do-governo-bolsonaro.shtml> 
on Monday, but on the following day additional recordings were leaked to 
the press — proving 
<https://veja.abril.com.br/politica/audios-bolsonaro-bebianno-whatsapp/> 
that it was Carlos and Jair Bolsonaro who had lied.

Top party officials, allies from other parties, and military figures are 
all concerned by this development. Some worry that the president will 
throw them to the wolves if the next scandal touches them; others worry 
that Bebianno knows too many secrets and needs to be kept in the fold. 
The generals, for their part, fear the unchecked influence of Jair 
Bolsonaro’s impulsive and power hungry sons.

Bebianno reportedly told an ally 
<https://g1.globo.com/politica/blog/gerson-camarotti/post/2019/02/17/em-desabafo-bebianno-diz-que-deve-desculpas-ao-pais-por-ter-viabilizado-candidatura-de-bolsonaro.ghtml?utm_source=meio&utm_medium=email>, 
“I need to apologize to Brazil for making Bolsonaro’s candidacy viable. 
I never imagined that he would be such a weak president.”

Perhaps Jair Bolsonaro would’ve been able to brush it all off as “fake 
news” — invented by conspiratorial foes — were it not for the fact that 
he and his son Flávio are at the center of a larger and more serious 
corruption scandal that is currently being investigated by the public 
prosecutor’s office. Flávio Bolsonaro attempted to quash the inquiry 
with a petition to the Supreme Court, but the move backfired — only 
serving to provoke greater public indignation.

The story goes something like this: A federal investigation into 
corruption in Rio de Janeiro’s extremely corrupt State Assembly found 
multiple representatives and staffers with large bank transfers that did 
not jibe with their stated incomes. Among them was Flávio Bolsonaro, now 
a federal senator, and his former driver, a retired police officer named 
Fabrício Queiroz. Queiroz, it turned out, was regularly receiving 
deposits from staffers in Flávio’s and Jair Bolsonaro’s offices 
— generally on or just after payday and generally for most or all of 
their after-tax pay. Through his wife, Queiroz also transferred money to 
Flávio and Jair Bolsonaro. Over three years, the transactions totaled 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/01/queiroz-movimentou-r-7-milhoes-em-tres-anos-diz-jornal.shtml> 
more than $1.8 million.

Flávio Bolsonaro is also being investigated for a series of “lightning” 
real estate transactions in which he’d buy properties and quickly flip 
them for enormous profits. The declared values in mandatory filings 
rarely matched 
<https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/02/transacoes-imobiliarias-de-flavio-bolsonaro-viram-alvo-de-investigacao-eleitoral.shtml> 
the purchase or sale prices, irregularities that raised suspicions. 
Authorities requested that Flávio Bolsonaro and Queiroz come in to be 
deposed, but both simply decided not to, instead giving squishy 
interviews to friendly media outlets.


      The Gangsters

That’s not all. The magazine Veja 
<https://veja.abril.com.br/blog/radar/ex-pm-queiroz-acumula-passado-com-mortes-no-curriculo/> 
and the newspaper O Globo 
<https://blogs.oglobo.globo.com/ancelmo/post/ficha-de-queiroz-o-ex-assessor-de-flavio-bolsonaro-na-pm-tem-muitos-autos-de-resistencia.html> 
both report that Queiroz, the ex-cop, was allegedly involved in multiple 
killings in the line of duty. And, according to Flávio Bolsonaro, he was 
responsible for hiring and supervising 
<https://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/flavio-bolsonaro-empregou-mae-mulher-de-chefe-do-escritorio-do-crime-em-seu-gabinete-23391490> 
the mother and wife of Adriano Magalhães da Nóbrega 
<https://theintercept.com/2019/01/17/marielle-franco-brazil-assassination-suspect/>. 
Nóbrega is said to be the chief of a militia group known as the “Office 
of Crime,” which has been accused of murder, extortion, fraud, and more. 
A former police captain, Nóbrega is currently a fugitive and also the 
primary suspect 
<https://theintercept.com/2019/01/17/marielle-franco-brazil-assassination-suspect/> 
in the murder of Rio de Janeiro city council member Marielle Franco and 
her driver.

Flávio and Jair Bolsonaro have both publicly commended Nóbrega in the 
past, despite his arrest on murder allegations. Since their ties to 
prominent militia members came to light late last month, however, the 
Bolsonaros have been quiet on the subject. The day after the story of 
those links broke, Jair Bolsonaro blew off 
<https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2019/01/23/bolsonaro-e-ministros-cancelam-pronunciamento-em-davos.ghtml> 
a scheduled press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 
claiming that he was “tired.”


      The Killers

While Jair Bolsonaro’s connection to these particular killer ex-cops is 
shocking, it’s not entirely surprising. Two of his top campaign promises 
were giving cops “carte blanche 
<https://theintercept.com/2017/10/10/jair-bolsonaro-eua-policia-matar/>” 
to kill in the line of duty and expanding access to guns for average 
citizens. While neither will improve public security, as he claims, both 
measures are advancing swiftly, a sign that perhaps Jair Bolsonaro will 
be able to get some things done despite all the chaos surrounding his 
presidency.

A bill presented by the justice minister this month would allow judges 
to suspend homicide convictions of cops who acted under broadly defined 
“excusable fear, surprise, or intense emotion.” Human Rights Watch says 
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/06/brazil-bill-could-shield-abusive-police> 
the measure “could be used to let police officers who kill people in 
unjustifiable circumstances evade punishment.” One could argue that is 
exactly the point, since the prosecution rate of police officers is 
already infinitesimally small.

Rio de Janeiro’s new governor, Wilson Witzel, is not waiting for any 
vote in Brasília to put the philosophy into practice — and there is a 
body count to prove it. Witzel supported Jair Bolsonaro during the 
campaign and took a similar line on police-involved killings, promising 
to greenlight the “slaughter” of anyone seen carrying a rifle and the 
use of police snipers. He even floated the possibility of policing with 
armed drones 
<https://extra.globo.com/noticias/rio/planos-de-witzel-de-usar-drone-que-faz-disparos-em-acoes-policiais-no-rio-sao-criticados-por-especialistas-23209073.html>.

Last month, three unarmed civilians 
<https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2019/02/12/politica/1549998144_030599.html> 
in the Manguinhos favela were shot seemingly at random, and two of them 
died. One of the victims, a 22-year-old bricklayer’s assistant, was hit 
in the back while buying a coconut 
<https://extra.globo.com/casos-de-policia/pericia-descobre-seteiras-viradas-para-favela-em-torre-na-cidade-da-policia-23445788.html> 
for his daughter. Family members and witnesses say the bullets came from 
a tower in the nearby police headquarters, and initial investigations 
have found holes punched into the walls that could be used to fire a 
rifle. Witzel hasn’t uttered a word on the subject.

This month, police in another Rio de Janeiro neighborhood 
<https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/rio-massacre-bope-chacina-13-pessoas/> 
killed 15 
<https://g1.globo.com/jornal-nacional/noticia/2019/02/14/no-rio-policia-e-mp-investigam-acao-da-pm-com-15-mortos-no-morro-do-fallet.ghtml> 
young men during a raid. Ten of them had been corralled into a home and 
appear to have been executed. Witzel praised the operation 
<https://g1.globo.com/rj/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2019/02/15/witzel-elogia-operacao-que-deixou-15-mortos-na-regiao-central-do-rio.ghtml> 
and referred to it as a “legitimate action.” Meanwhile, police oversight 
mechanisms and protections for internal affairs investigators have been 
rolled back or undone completely. According to official statistics 
<http://www.forumseguranca.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FBSP_Anuario_Brasileiro_Seguranca_Publica_Infogr%C3%A1fico_2018.pdf>, 
which are frequently underreported, on-duty Brazilian police killed 
5,144 people in 2017.


      The Mess

To an American observer in 2019, all of this might sound insane and yet 
quite familiar. A corrupt, nepotistic, right-wing populist is elected on 
a platform to end corruption; his handful of policy prescriptions please 
the base but do nothing (or worse) to solve the problems they are 
supposed to fix. This leader’s own ignorance and incompetence end up 
forcing him to spend most of his time cleaning up the messes that he and 
his allies inadvertently created. All the while, he blames the press for 
pointing out multiple times a day that his pants — and his 
administration — are on fire.

In such a chaotic environment, stories that would have been major 
scandals in other administrations — like a foreign minister who believes 
<https://blogs.oglobo.globo.com/lauro-jardim/post/novo-chanceler-tambem-repete-que-nazismo-e-ideologia-de-esquerda.html> 
that Nazism was a leftist movement and “climatism 
<https://www.metapoliticabrasil.com/blog/sequestrar-e-perverter>” is a 
manufactured, totalitarian “globalist” plot, or the revelation that 
intelligence agencies may be spying 
<https://politica.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,planalto-ve-igreja-catolica-como-potencial-opositora,70002714758> 
on the Catholic Church because they wish to “neutralize” their “leftist 
agenda” — have become minor footnotes.

Like the U.S., the mainstream opposition is entirely feckless and lacks 
vision; unlike the U.S., no insurgent, progressive rays of hope have 
emerged to reveal a conceivable new way forward. Like the U.S., 
government agencies and crucial oversight mechanisms are being gutted, 
and corporations and oligarchs are quickly and quietly seizing the 
moment to rewrite the rules even further in their favor; unlike the 
U.S., few effective institutional safeguards exist to slow their advances.

In Brazil, the right-wing agenda is mostly the following: Gut 
regulations of all kinds, particularly environmental and labor; cut 
social spending; make taxation even more regressive; privatize almost 
every government-controlled asset; expand the privatization of education 
and health care; increase access to firearms; ban abortions in all 
circumstances; promote environmentally destructive extractive 
industries; build more prisons and fill them by passing tougher 
sentencing guidelines; greenlight more aggressive policing of poor 
neighborhoods; increase the military’s power and prestige; reign in the 
press; roll back freedom of information programs; and dismantle laws and 
programs that support and are supported by progressives. Sound familiar?

Both countries are racked by colossal economic, social, and 
environmental challenges that must be addressed immediately. The fate of 
their populations and the whole planet literally hang in the balance. It 
isn’t clear if these (mostly) men have never pondered or simply don’t 
care about the potentially catastrophic implications of their short-term 
aims, but what is clear is that there is no quick fix. Even if you 
defeat the president, a vice president with all of the same central 
policy goals, but with only a fraction of the personal drama, lies 
waiting in the wings to swoop down and more efficiently execute the agenda.

This is what hangs, and will continue to hang, over Brazil. Jair 
Bolsonaro has another 1,409 days in first term as president.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20190222/bd6cdf9c/attachment.htm>