BOLSONARO RAMPS UP CRACKDOWN ON DISSENT WITH TOUGH BRAZIL ELECTION LOOMING

[Judi Lynn]

From a dictatorship-era law to his campaign against the press, Brazil’s far-right president is ready to use his whole arsenal.

Andrew FishmanAndrew Fishman
June 12 2021, 9:44 a.m.

BRIGHT RED BLOOD gushed through Daniel Campelo da Silva’s fingers, staining his otherwise immaculate white polo shirt. He was out buying work supplies on May 29 in the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife. Peaceful protests against far-right President Jair Bolsonaro were sweeping Brazil, and da Silva was walking into one, unaware that riot police would soon, without warning, violently crack down. A police officer shot the 51-year-old da Silva with a rubber-tipped bullet, leading to the loss of his eye.

Da Silva’s tragic misfortune is emblematic of multiple facets of Brazil’s descent into disarray. On a basic level, a common man working to pay his bills is permanently scarred by authoritarian state violence, carried out in an effort to stamp out left-wing resistance. Beneath the surface, a more ominous dynamic was at work: Gov. Paulo Câmara, a Bolsonaro critic and commander-in-chief of the state police, insists that neither he nor anybody from his office gave the order to attack the protestors. The president’s interests had apparently overridden the governor’s legal authority over the security forces. One columnist was prompted to ask: “Who commands the police?”

The power struggle and the consequences for people like da Silva raise another, larger question: How far will Bolsonaro go to stay in power?

Bolsonaro, who faces record disapproval, has ratcheted up his pressure on opponents in various ways, attempting to fortify himself ahead of presidential elections next October. He has worked to build a solid base among local police rank and file (although that support may be fading) and replaced wavering allies with loyal shock troops in key military, intelligence, and law enforcement positions. All the while, Bolsonaro has repeatedly signaled his desire to rewrite the rules to give himself more power, even if it requires a coup to do so.

More:
https://theintercept.com/2021/06/12/bolsonaro-crackdown-coup-election/

[David__77]

1. The fascist/police coup was the model for Trumpists, and may be yet again.

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