The Lessons of Brasilia January 8, 2023
by Professor Michael Cohen
The 2003 World Social Forum in Brazil loudly declared that “Another World is Possible”.
The attack on the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Buildings by thousands of demonstrators on January 9 confirmed that slogan. Another world is possible, and Donald Trump has shown the world how to get there.
There is little question that the January 9 attacks, like the January 6, 2021, attacks on the US Capitol in Washington, have their origins in a view of authoritarian leaders like Donald Trump that if democratic elections and institutions do not deliver their desired results, they deserve to be overturned. The US House of Representatives Committee on the January 6 Insurrection publicly demonstrated that the US attacks were imagined, organized, and carried out by extreme right wing political groups in the US with the approval and encouragement of the then President Trump. The inability of the US political system to categorically refute Trump’s claim that “the election was stolen” created a space from which violent, oppositional politics could emerge.
The attack in Brazil demonstrates that the virus is contagious, but this time in a much more virulent strain. The thousands of demonstrators brought to Brasilia in more than 40 buses suggests that this effort was far from secret and had to have been well organized and financed.
The days leading up to January 8, a well-chosen day when the buildings are not occupied, show that there was some level of collusion with the military, the police, and the intelligence services, which did not alert or protect the newly sworn in Government of President Lula of the impending danger.
President Lula has promised to prosecute the demonstrators within the limits of Brazilian law. But the damage has been done. Instead of Lula being able to immediately address the economic, social, environmental, and health deficits left by Bolsonaro, he will have to focus the Brazilian Government’s attention on prosecuting the demonstrators and assuring that the military, police, and intelligence services are loyal to the new Government. This will be difficult with a Brazilian Congress with many elected members who are Bolsonaro supporters.
Yes, another world is possible, but it is not a world which is seeking social justice and economic opportunities for millions of poor Brazilians. Rather it is one dominated by concerns for security and political stability. The members of Lula’s Government will have to be attentive to these concerns.
Unfortunately, this is not just a Brazilian problem. As the recent election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy, has shown, many of Trump’s supporters and election deniers are now elected officials in the United States with an agenda to disrupt orderly governance. Some of their counterparts sit in the Congresses of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.
Anti-democratic politics is very much present in other countries in Latin America, such as Argentina where an assassination attempt several months ago on Vice-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has not led the Argentine judiciary to prosecute those involved. Similarly, the “lawfare” efforts of the Argentine Supreme Court to support indictments of unproven corruption against the Vice-President and to uphold a new definition of Federal revenue-sharing which threatens to give excessive financial resources to the City of Buenos Aires are all intended to destabilize the political system. The right wing operates with purpose and impunity.
This has also occurred in Chile with the rejection of a new constitution, in Colombia with rejection of a cease-fire and peace agreement with the guerillas, and prior coup attempts in Bolivia.
Latin America is quivering, not because of North American CIA plots, but rather because of the impact of perverse anti-democratic ideas and strategies coming from the United States.
The mass demonstrations and violence in Brasilia remind us that another world is possible, where the risks to democracy are real, where there are few costs for fascist behavior, and the courts and the press seem to have joined the front against democracy.