How conservative corruption opened a fascist door in Rio
GABRIEL DESLANDES , NOVEMBER 13, 2018
Massive corruption in Rio de Janeiro’s disastrous Public/Private transportation partnerships brought an end to decades of MDB party hegemony, but the power vacuum that it opened was filled by neofascists.
by Gabriel Deslandes
When the June, 2013 protests against bus fare hikes and lack of quality public transportation rocked Brazil, protesters in Rio de Janeiro had a clear target: their suspicion of irregularities in government contracts with bus companies which benefited then governor Sergio Cabral (MDB) and his allies.
Perhaps the protesters did not know that, during the years to come, this suspicion would transform into an unprecedented political crisis and the imprisonment of traditional political machine members for corruption, through actions like the recent Federal Police Furna da Onça investigation, which resulted in the arrests of 10 state congressmen from different political parties, all of whom belonged to Sergio Cabral’s governing coalition. The collateral effect of this anti-corruption process appears to be the opening of a power vacuum that was occupied by neofacist outsiders.
The Cronyist power structure
After the 1964 coup, Rio de Janeiro’s political party scenario suffered from a unique process of transformation: both the left and the liberal right were shut down by the Military Dictatorship. This persecution opened space for an openly cronyist center-right, (commonly called the Centrão) which developed regional hegemony. Since that time, this political field has been characterized by paternalistic actions which are ingrained in the administrative dynamic of the Rio state government, co-opting other political forces and maintaining a network of alliances that does not have any clearly defined political or ideological program.
The formation of this bloc is clearly represented in the MDB, the party which occupied the center of power in Rio’s legislative and executive branches. The MDB maintained a cronyist parliamentary majority for decades, without any commitment to a political project, whose only practice consisted in the micro-politics of meeting periodic demands of the population and responding to the multiple corporatist groups such as the judiciary. In this manner, the Rio de Janeiro state legislative assembly (ALERJ), maintained a political culture based on cronyism and the liquidation of opposition forces.
More:
http://www.brasilwire.com/how-conservative-corruption-opened-a-fascist-door-in-rio/