Brazil’s Parliamentary Investigative Committee (CPI) investigating the government’s mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic announced on 6 October that it planned to accuse President Jair Bolsonaro and members of his cabinet – some 30 people overall – with ‘crimes against humanity’ and even ‘genocide’ of indigenous peoples. Without judicial powers, the CPI will deliver its report to the Office of the Prosecutor and the House of Deputies on 15 October. Impeachment procedures may then start against the president. By 12 October, there had been more than 21.5 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Brazil, with 601,442 Covid deaths, a number second only to that of the United States. Alvaro Michaels reports.
More than 120 proposals and motions to impeach President Bolsonaro have already been blocked in Congress by Bolsonaro’s ally, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, centre- right Arthur Lira. Consequently, the CPI concluded in its report of 23 September that the impeachment law must be changed, that enough evidence existed to denounce Bolsonaro to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, and that he should also be indicted for failing to activate investigations into irregularities in the negotiation of the Covaxin vaccine by the Ministry of Health. Separately, Bolsonaro is already under investigation for malfeasance over the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines in the Supreme Court.
In a desperate attempt to strengthen his position, Bolsonaro tried to turn the 7 September National Independence Day celebrations into pro-government rallies. Much tension arose over Bolsonaro’s coup like statements. In the capital Brasilia, Bolsonaro spoke of convening the Council of the Republic, a consultative body that is only summoned in extraordinary circumstances to decree a State of Siege, a State of Defence or federal intervention in a province. Bolsonaro supporters carried banners and posters demanding the closing of Congress, the removal of ministers from the Supreme Court and a military intervention, all of them illegal. His evangelical base and the rich still provide support, but 57% of Brazilians say they never trust what Bolsonaro says after his deliberate and disastrous policy of spreading the pandemic. 50% of the middle class (those earning five to ten times the minimum wage) now reject him, as do 51% of the over-60s. On the 7 September, counterdemonstrations took place in 160 cities across Brazil against Bolsonaro’s attempted kidnap of the Independence Day celebrations. The protests against the president were called by the National Campaign ‘Fora Bolsonaro’, made up of the Povo Sem Medo (The Workers Party) and Brazil Popular Front, a coalition of social movements, unions and union federations formed to counter and revert the 2016 legalised coup against President Dilma Rousseff, as well as political parties, union central and popular movements.
Later, in Sao Paulo, Bolsonaro again attacked governors and mayors who called for social isolation to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He attacked the electronic voting system. He attacked the independence of the judiciary with threats against the Supreme Court, specifically minister Alexandre De Moraes. Previously Bolsonaro had filed a request for De Moraes’ impeachment before the Senate, arguing that he and fellow judge, Luis Roberto Barroso, had gone beyond constitutional limits. At his rally Bolsonaro declared the Supreme Court to be part of a ‘criminal organisation’ that disseminates fake news. Reacting to the Superior Electoral Court magistrates, who placed him under investigation for alleged irregularities in the 2018 elections, he insisted he would never be arrested. ‘I want to tell the scoundrels that I will never be imprisoned,’ he said, ‘I want to tell those who want to see me ineligible, there in Brasilia, that only God can get me out of there.’
Bolsonaro anticipated the Supreme Court’s rejection of his decree intended to increase the carrying of weapons in the country, remove taxes on arms imports and increasing the limit from four to six firearms that a person can buy.
However, Bolsonaro is unable to control the reactionary currents and actions he has unleashed. Small trucking businesses that supported Bolsonaro, blocked highways in at least 14 states. In anticipation, on the 7 September members of the employers’ National Cargo Road Transport Council filed a lawsuit against Bolsonaro, the Federal Government and the militants, for potential damage to cargo. The day after his demonstrations Bolsonaro recorded an audio urging the truck drivers to open the country’s roads – mostly in Santa Catarina state, his stronger base – because they harmed the economy and (shamelessly) ‘especially the poorest’. The truck drivers had been demanding that Bolsonaro ‘intervene in the Supreme Court’,
Following his threats against the constitution Bolsonaro was forced by cabinet members to release a letter to the nation, cowritten with his predecessor, the former president Michel Temer, conceding that he respected the Constitution and separation of the Three Powers (executive, legislature and judiciary) and that his controversial statements had been delivered ‘in the heat of the moment’. This retreat undermined support from his street mobs, the truck drivers and congressional supporters.
Bolsonaro’s censorship campaign
On the eve of the 7 September demonstration Bolsonaro issued a decree, claiming to protect ‘freedom of expression’. He wanted to change internet regulations to combat the ‘arbitrary deletion’ of accounts, profiles and content. He had already had false content about Covid-19 had already been removed from his social media accounts. He considers the suspension of accounts or removal of lies as ‘censorship’. Brazil’s Senate Speaker, Pacheco repealed the decree immediately, saying that issues regarding ‘political rights, freedom of expression, communication and expression of thought’ cannot be addressed through a decree with the force of law.
The opposition split
The weekend of the 11/12 September saw demonstrations in Sao Paulo and 16 other Brazilian cities demanding the impeachment of the President. Promoted by the Movimento Brasil Livre and Come Pra Rua movements, it represented protesters from the centre, demanding a ‘third’ way, who do not support former president Lula, thereby dividing the opposition to the government. They were inevitably smaller than the demonstrations on either side on 7 September. Bolsonaro said that these anti-government demonstrators were not part of the ‘well’ population and were ‘worthy of pity’.
The economic crisis and Covid-19
40 million Brazilian workers have no formal employment, and 28 million of these, some 13% of Brazil’s population, are now living below the poverty line of 246 reals a month. This includes those receiving the ‘Bolsa Familia’ social benefit of up to 205 reals ($36) a month. A cash benefit system to mitigate the economic effects of Covid-19 ended last December and was replaced in April for just another four months, averaging 250 reals, but delivered to a narrower set of informal workers. Poverty rates have shot up. Starvation has always been a fact of life in Brazil, but now even the western media are forced to note the widespread destitution, as slum dwellers daily scratch desperately for food amongst refuse heaps and wherever they can.
On 2 October thousands of people again took to the streets in 160 towns and cities across Brazil to condemn the government, and against hunger, poverty, and corruption.
The assault on the indigenous peoples
The assault on tribal lands proceeds, despite a postponement of judgement by the Supreme Court on land ownership. The capitalist farmers want 1988 to be set as the date for a definitive land rights settlement, so recognizing only tribal lands designated as occupied by their communities in that year. This would override the 1988 Constitution, which guaranteed rights for indigenous land ownership without any cut-off date for claims. Bolsonaro is keen to support the farmers’ existing and new incursions into indigenous territories, so destroying yet more forest lands and proceeding with the destruction of the 850,000 remaining indigenous peoples.
UN debacle
On 21 September at the UN, any remaining hopes that the world bourgeoise had of Bolsonaro were lost as he repeated his support for mock remedies for Covid-19, denounced containment measures, and lied about Brazilian environmental policies. In the last week of September, albeit in private WhatsApp messages to his immediate circle, Bolsonaro sent nonsense about the Covid-19 vaccines – claiming they induced heart attacks – released a video praising the former Chilean dictator and mass killer Pinochet, taunted the LGBTI community, and continued to attack former President Lula da Silva. The same week the Bolsonaro-allied Prevent Senior healthcare company was exposed in Congress for using its patients as human guinea pigs in illegal Covid-19 medical experiments with hydroxychloroquine, then lying about the results and hiding consequent deaths.
Brazil’s ruling class does not trust Bolsonaro; he has become a liability. By 5 October Bolsonaro’s allies in agribusiness and among evangelicals were suggesting that he act ‘patriotically’ and give up on re-election. The idea is to avoid a defeat for Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential election. However, presently they have no alternative. The ruling class has been unable to move against Bolsonaro before now because an earlier impeachment would have triggered an election. They had no reliable and plausible candidate, sufficiently unsullied by corruption, to put in Bolsonaro’s place. An election campaign and a movement for Lula could unleash social forces beyond ruling class control that threatens them. Elections for the presidency and National Congress are scheduled for 2 October 2022. The ruling class will search for a viable replacement for Bolsonaro and rival for Lula, while making sure that Lula is sufficiently tamed and corralled.
