Brazil Under Attack: The Insidious Plot to Remove Anti-Communist Bolsonaro from Office

Communist Takeover of Brazil: The Insidious Plot To Remove Bolsonaro From Office

The following article illustrates how deeply Brazilian communists have infiltrated institutions to gain power. Unfortunately, many of the same tactics are being used across the globe, including in America. Citizens must vigilantly fight against this threat.

Many thanks to José Atento for writing the following article for RAIR Foundation USA. Mr. Atento is an educator from Brazil.

Bolivarian Socialism: Brazil on the brink?

This article summarizes Brazil’s Communist takeover crisis. Since President Jair Bolsonaro has been elected, the communist takeover has been gaining more and more momentum.

The goal is to either oust Bolsonaro from power during his presidency or force him to lose the upcoming October 2, 2022, presidential election. The communists have been unable to oust him so far because of his extraordinary popularity. But they have just about guaranteed his defeat in the election as a fully electronic ballot box will be used to make sure Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula), wins the election. Lula is a convict, turned into a presidential candidate by the Supreme Court. 

Lula was released from prison on November 19th by the judges of the Supreme Court that he himself nominated during his 16 years of socialist rule over Brazil. These judges will be responsible for counting the votes and certifying the winner in next year’s election. 

Remember that in Venezuela, a Communist-infested Supreme Court paved the way for Hugo Chavez to gain power! 

The video accompanying the article is a portion of an interview given to Jornal da Cidade Online, from August 16, by political analyst José Carlos Sepúlveda. He provides his expert analysis on the crisis caused by the arbitrary and unconstitutional actions of the Supreme Court. 

Context

In 2018, Bolsonaro was elected on the shoulders of the Brazilian people, disgusted with the excesses and corruption of 16 years of their socialist government. During the socialist’s rule, the institutions had been penetrated and populated by activists, be they teachers in schools and universities (mainly in the humanities), artists, the bar association, civil servants, the press, and the icing on the cake, in the Supreme Court, composed mostly of lawyers appointed by the previous socialist government. Thus, it can be said that the most influential part of the Brazilian establishment remains under the influence of a socialist legacy despite the Bolsonaro presidency win.

Bolsonaro, then the establishment’s number one enemy, gave patriotic and anti-socialist when he was elected. Since then, the resistance against Bolsonaro began based on the motto “the means justify the ends.” The three main pillars of this resistance have been the mainstream media, the Supreme Court (STF), and the Federal Senate. The mainstream press reverberates everything against Bolsonaro while hiding his government’s great effort to reduce the size of the state, modernize the economy, strengthen agribusiness, and improve road and rail infrastructure. The Supreme Court became the main opposition party to the government, acting politically, knowing that the only institution that can put a brake on its excesses is the Senate. But dozens of senators have several lawsuits in the Federal Supreme Court, most of them for corruption. That is why they remain silent, as any action by these senators against the Supreme Court will result in them being judged by the Supreme Court itself. Thus, a collusion of fear was created.

Since Bolsonaro’s election in 2018, the establishment accuses him of being a threat to democracy, an authoritarian government, or plotting a military takeover. The real threat comes from judges of the Supreme Court who are implementing a Dictatorship of the Judiciary. These judges want to govern, which is not their responsibility. They have taken to themselves the right to investigate and prosecute, in addition to trying, convicting, and arresting. Imagine if the judge at your trial was also the arresting officer and investigator of your alleged crime! 

Below is a chronology of what has been happening with the STF in recent years. We shall refer to the Supreme Court as STF hereinafter.

1. Reversing the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff

In 2016, during the impeachment process of then-President Dilma Rousseff, STF Judge Ricardo Lewandowski violated the constitution and accepted a maneuver by Socialist Senators of the Workers’ Party (PT) that allowed Rousseff to maintain her political rights even after being impeached. Fortunately, voters in the state of Minas Gerais rejected his candidacy for the senate in 2018.

2. Turning Lula from a convicted felon to a presidential candidate

Thereafter, STF Judges flouted the criminal law and the constitution by accepting appeals from defendants in what is known as Operation Car Wash. The judges nullified several sentences of Operation Car Wash, forcing the process to go back to square one. This decision was the first step towards freeing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula), who had nominated most STF Judges. 

Car Wash Operation was a huge investigation that exposed the largest corruption scheme in the history of Brazil and led to the imprisonment of entrepreneurs, civil servants, politicians, governors, and even a president, Lula. 

After that, STF Judges changed the interpretation of the Constitution and decided to release thousands of criminals from drug dealers, murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. The judges even released repeat offenders, saying they should stay free until the judiciary judges all appeals. Furthermore, even convicted criminals who no longer had any chance of reversing their guilty verdict were released.

This new interpretation of the Constitution benefited former president and ex-convict Lula, who was released from prison, and several other inmates who were part of Operation Car Wash.

But that was not enough for the STF Judges. They needed more contortion maneuvers to make the former president and ex-convict Lula eligible to run for office again. For this purpose, all charges would have to be dropped. Excusing him of the crimes he committed (e.g., bribes received from large engineering companies in exchange for overpriced contracts) would be impossible because there is definitive evidence proving his guilt. In three separate instances, judges of lower courts not only found him guilty of his crimes but increased his penalties. Despite the evidence and the prior judge’s findings, the STF nullified the convictions, thus allowing Lula to run for president of the republic in the next elections.

Lula, who was supposed to serve 20 years in prison, was released through a maneuver by the STF and is running for president next year against Bolsonaro. The votes will be electronic, and many fear that the election will be rigged without the possibility of auditing or recounts. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (STE) is controlled by the STF Judges who, as mentioned earlier, turned Lula from a convicted felon into a presidential candidate.

3. Going after Bolsonaro and his supporters

From the start of the Bolsonaro administration, the STF has persecuted conservatives and supporters of Bolsonaro. STF Judge Alexandre de Moraes opened an inquiry called the “Inquiry of Anti-Democratic Acts and Fake News,” which targeted any support to the Bolsonaro government, be it via rallies, independent media, or even politicians. However, opinion is not a crime. Public assembly is not a crime. These are constitutional rights. But for STF Judges, they are crimes if they happen to support Bolsonaro. So STF Judges started calling an “anti-democratic act” any rally in support of the government. STF Judges started calling “fake news” any opinion in support of the government. 

The only exception granted by the Constitution in which the STF can investigate a crime is when the crime is committed against Judges or employees of the STF inside its building. But the bizarre claim, that since the alleged crimes (of opinion and assembly) are committed over the Internet and accessed by STF computers, it is as if they happened inside the STF. In other words, in the distorted view of the Brazilian Supreme Court, the entire world is under its jurisdiction.

This inquiry resulted in media censorship, confiscation of assets, imprisonment of political activists and conservative journalists, and even the arrest of a federal deputy, Daniel Silveira, for a crime of opinion for criticizing the STF. In doing so, the STF disregarded the parliamentary immunity provided by the Constitution.

All these actions by the STF were applauded by the mainstream media, which is against Bolsonaro. As a result, Bolsonaro stopped the transfer of public funds to the media since the beginning of his term, which was, in fact, one of his campaign promises.

Interestingly, after Bolsonaro’s inauguration, CNN opened a Portuguese language branch in Brazil, which opposes the Bolsonaro government.

The irony is that the STF, and the mainstream press, define peaceful demonstrations in support of Bolsonaro as anti-democratic acts. Meanwhile, socialist protesters carrying knives, stones, and fuel to set fire to public and private property buildings are called democratic marches by the media and praised by the supreme court.

The inquiry opened by Judge Alexandre de Moraes is so illegal that it was called by retired Judge Marco Aurélio Mello “the inquiry of the end of the world,” a very appropriate name, as it is a legal aberration.

Now, President Bolsonaro himself is being indicted, accused of fake news, for showing evidence that the electronic electoral system is unreliable. Bolsonaro showed signs of possible fraud in the elections of 2014 and evidence the electoral system was hacked in 2018. Bolsonaro quoted an investigation from the federal police, including the confession of the Electoral Tribunal (TSE) technology coordinator. Interestingly, the same investigation says the TSE erased the hacking logs. By erasing the traces of the crime, TSE made it impossible to investigate what happened. 

4. A potentially rigged electoral process

And talking about the electoral process, elections in Brazil are made through an electronic ballot box that does not offer any audit or recount opportunity. And who controls the issuance of the bulletin with the results of the elections is the TSE, which, as mentioned above, is controlled by the STF. The Chamber of Deputies was about to pass an amendment that would make the electronic voting machine auditable. Then, the president of the TSE, who is also a member of the STF, Judge Barroso, in an illegal act, went to Congress and met with the leaders of various parties to convince them to vote against this amendment. After the vote that kept the ballot box inaudible, congressional and opposition leaders were seen celebrating in an upscale restaurant in Brasilia, accompanied by a representative of the Chinese embassy.

Elections in Brazil are decided through an electronic ballot box that does not offer any audit or recount opportunity. And who controls the issuance of the bulletin with the results of the elections is the TSE, which, as mentioned above, is controlled by the STF. The Chamber of Deputies was about to pass an amendment that would make the electronic voting machine auditable. Then, in an illegal act, the president of the TSE, Judge Barroso, a member of the STF, went to Congress and met with the leaders of various parties to convince them to vote against this amendment. The leaders voted to keep the ballot box non-auditable. Congressional and opposition leaders celebrated the decision in an upscale restaurant in Brasilia with a representative of the Chinese embassy.

5. Not even the president of a political party is safe 

And finally, the latest act of authoritarianism. Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the arrest of former federal deputy Roberto Jefferson, president of the (conservative) Brazilian Labor Party (PTB) and an ally of President Bolsonaro. Jefferson is critical of the STF’s political role. The Chinese ambassador to Brazil gloated over Jefferson’s arrest. Ironic that in Brazil today, the Chinese ambassador to Brazil has more rights to freedom of expression than Brazilian journalists and politicians.

So, the stage is set. President Bolsonaro is accused of being anti-democratic, fascist, coup leader, etc., but it is his socialist opponents who are arresting activists, journalists, and even parliamentarians, without trial. The current action of the STF is similar to what happened in Venezuela during the takeover by the dictator Hugo Chaves.

The options for Brazil to not fall into the web of socialism and become a new Venezuela have become scarce.

Let’s wait and see what cards Bolsonaro still has under his sleeve.