Brazil. 4 facts that are telling us Bolsonaro is killing democracy. And this is literally.
My objective here is to try to show the reality as is. I don’t want to expose my own thoughts or ideas. Please, everyone, make your own conclusions.
Jair Bolsonaro was elected by ballot on January first, 2019. But it seems like he wants to kill the democracy that allowed him to come to power.
Here are the 4 proofs.
1# Proof. Next year could be no elections.
“Either we’ll have clean elections, or we won’t have elections.” (The Washington Post) Bolsonaro said this month, just one week after he said on social media “I’ll hand over the presidential sash to whoever wins the election cleanly. Not with fraud.” (Yahoo finance).
But why is Bolsonaro wondering if there could be fraud in the next Brazilian presidential elections?
It is quite similar to Trump's negation of the 2020 USA presidential election results. The answer can not be more simple: he is thinking he won’t win because of the management of covid-19 pandemia.
2# Proof. Military ministers.
9 ministers are running the military. At least 6,100 militaries are distributed among the country institutions. The army is the vertical column of the Bolsonaro administration.
The government invested $16.6 billion in military privileges (retired pensions, salaries, helps, etc, etc)
In politology, Octavio Amorim Neto words “Army is not only the electoral-politic base of Bolsonaro Government but also an intimidation instrument to the opposition. Bolsonaro is trying to transmit the idea that he can use force against political enemies as he wants”.
#3 Proof. Distracting the attention.
While Bolsonaro says either things like,
“(In Brazil)There is no hunger,”
or “Shooting’s a sport. Demonizing it is part of a dictatorial leftist plan”,
he has made 1,060 decrees, (Dilma Rouseff, previous president, 614), that little by little, are eroding the Brazilian’s constitutional system. Like his obsession with weapons -Brazil signed Disarmament Statute in 2005- is making laws that literally allow skipping this Disarmament Statute. What for? Experts see in this action, the danger of armed Bolsonaro supporters crowd all around the streets.
#4 Proof. Fake news Vs Freedom of speech.
Once more like Trump, Bolsonaro loves social media. He makes weekly posts. But he only speaks through some specific tv channels and web sites. His acolytes have blind faith in his Facebook live messages and it is not uncommon to see them shouting: Facebook! Facebook! (and also WhatsApp! WhatsApp!) Ideology and fake news are circulating through these Apps from the government to the supporter’s souls, while teachers and discordant voices are accused as traitors. Like the entire Universidy Federal of Ceará.
This article is inspired by the Spanish report “El método Bolsonaro: un asalto a la democracia a cámara lenta”, (Bolsonaro method: a slow motion assault against democracy) by AFONSO BENITES|CARLA JIMÉNEZ|FELIPE BETIM|MARINA ROSSI|NAIARA GALARRAGA GORTÁZAR|REGIANE OLIVEIRA|JAMIL CHADE
