Brazil may have its own January 6 moment - or worse
Incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro’s aggressive rhetoric may lead to post-election violence if he loses the September 25 vote.
Erika Robb Larkins
Associate Professor of Anthropology at California State University, San Diego
Lucas Louback
Human rights activist
Published On 29 Sep 2022
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro points up during a military parade to celebrate the bicentennial of the country's independence from Portugal, in Brasília, on September 7, 2022 [File: Eraldo Peres/AP Photo]
On October 2, Brazil will hold its ninth democratic election since military rule ended in 1985. But this young democracy, the second largest in the Western hemisphere, is under threat. The greatest menace comes from current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election.
Bolsonaro lags considerably behind challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with recent polls showing only 31 percent of the electorate supports him. But a Bolsonaro defeat doesn’t mean that Brazil will immediately get back on the path to democracy, prosperity or political sanity.
Bolsonaro enjoys a fervent base of supporters, many of whom are armed extremists, hailing from the military, police and militias analogous to the Proud Boys in the United States. If he were to lose at the polls, there is an imminent risk that Brazil will experience something similar to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Or worse.
As president, Bolsonaro has used the highest office in the country to aggressively fan the flames of disinformation. This tendency became tragically clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he personally promoted the use of unproven (and now disproven) treatments and opposed vaccination. As a result, Brazil suffered some of the highest death rates in the world.
More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/9/29/brazil-may-have-its-own-january-6-moment-or-worse
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