In echoes of our own Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol uprising, supporters of the recently ousted Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil stormed the nation’s seat of government on Sunday in protest of his defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in October.
Having been convinced the election was rigged, thousands ransacked the three offices of government, bursting into Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and the presidential office.
The damage and violence was significant. Fires were set, windows broken, works of art both stolen and destroyed, and the outnumbered police officers violently attacked.
Protesters planted a flag in front of the National Congress building reading “intervention” — a call for military intervention.
As with our 2020 election, former President Bolsonaro had falsely claimed that if he were to lose, it would only be because of fraud.
Bolsonaro still has refused to unequivocally accept his defeat, a fact that has kept thousands of his far-right supporters camped out in front of the military’s headquarters in the capital city of Brasilia, stewing for revenge.
Also following the example of our former president, Bolsonaro disrespectfully skipped Mr. Lula’s Jan. 1 inauguration where it’s tradition for the outgoing president to hand over the presidential sash to his successor, a symbolic reaffirmation of Brazil’s young democracy. It’s only been 38 years since Brazilians restored democracy, ousting its 21-year military dictatorship in favor of a representative government.
Rather than remain in Brazil, Bolsonaro fled to the United States two days before his term ended, where he reportedly is holed up in Orlando. Hopefully U.S. officials will enforce the 90-day limit of a visitor’s visa.
Before his departure, Bolsonaro told his supporters, in essence, to move on.
“We live in a democracy or we don’t,” he said in a recorded statement. “No one wants an adventure.”
Easier said than done.
Sunday’s riots were the culmination of years of conspiracy theories intended to undermine democracy. In addition to his claims of voter fraud, Bolsonaro maintained the COVID-19 virus was a hoax and that he was the target of a “deep state” contrived by the “establishment.”
At one point he claimed “Let’s go straight to the dictatorship,” in an effort to further usurp power.
Such talk is never in a vacuum. Words inspire action, for good and for ill. And the bigger the platform, the more extreme the outcome.
If democracy is the goal, the messaging must be consistently unequivocal.
