BRAZIL: FOLLOWING THE US
On Jan. 8, 2023, supporters of defeated president Jair Bolsonaro (conservative and “Christian”) rioted in Brasilia and vandalized the President’s office, the Congress and the Supreme Court building, doing considerable damage. The police did not stop them, in spite of warnings that the riot would take place. Later many rioters were arrested. At the time the government buildings were empty. The recently elected president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was elsewhere inspecting flood damage; Bolsonaro has been in Florida since December.
Polls have shown that 40% of Brazilian respondents believe Bolsonaro won the presidential election, and 37% said they would support a military coup to overturn Lula’s electoral victory. Bolsonaro has still not conceded the election and refused the Brazilian tradition of one president turning over the presidential sash to the next one. This is a country which lived under military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.
Brazil (pop. 214 million) is far away in South America but it looks to the US as an example more than most Latin American countries. Jan. 6, 2021 is not a good example to follow.
(Sources: The Economist,1/14/23 and The New York Times, 1/13/23