The storm that hordes of supporters of the former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, caused in Brasilia on January 8 is reprehensible. In facts investigated by the justice system, the headquarters of Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace were violently invaded, with the intention of reversing the electoral result that brought Lula da Silva back to power. What coincidences can we find with what was carried out by crowds supporting Trump in Washington, in 2021?
First, it is obvious that in Brazil they ‘copy-paste’ what happened two years ago in the US Congress. Both groups are militants in extreme right-wing populism, and are convinced that their mission on earth is to reverse electoral results that were stolen from them. Neither Trump nor Bolsonaro has evidence that they had led the protests, but both had clearly warned that if they lost, it was because the results had been manipulated. And they both lost.
Neither in Brazil nor in the US it is still clear if the authorities, the police, were tolerant of the violent. In Washington, because those who protected the Capitol were slow to react to the takeover; in Brasilia, because several appear talking with the protesters and taking selfies. They even escorted them in some sections.
Trump is already out of power. But Lula is just beginning a new term, so, in a more pragmatic way, he must try to govern for all Brazilians, without excluding those who detest him or distrust his clean hands, so that they can at least put up with it and not continue to sabotage it. .
But, just as there are too many similarities between the Bolsonaro protesters and the Trump supporters, it is rather big differences that separate Lula da Silva from Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Lula’s immediate reaction was to go before the media to condemn the violent demonstrations with these exact words: “They behave like true vandals. They will all be found and punished. Democracy guarantees freedom of expression, but it also requires that people respect institutions.”
On the contrary, what did Petro do when there were violent riots against the government of President Duque in various cities of the country? Let’s see. One: he never said, like Lula, that the behavior had been vandalistic. On the contrary, he and those closest to him assured that they were legitimate protests that had received an excessive reaction from the Police, with the purpose of gouging out the eyes of the young people on the front line. Total: neither attack with Molotov cocktails, nor attack with magic weapons, nor destroy public property, including buildings and public transport buses, nor burn Cais; None of this ever constituted for Petro, as it did for Bolsonaro, acts of vandalism, but rather legitimate social protest.
Two: finding and punishing those responsible led the Brazilian authorities to detain about 1,500 people who, according to Lula’s promise, will be prosecuted and punished. What did Peter do? Coming to the Presidency to promise (in vain, obviously) that before December 24, those accused of committing these excesses, which included even torture of citizens, would be released. To date, they have only managed to get three released, because, fortunately, the brave 28th criminal trial judge stood up to the Petro government, arguing that she lacked competence to release three other young people anointed by the government as spokespersons for peace, and that the only ones with jurisdiction to do so are the guarantee control judges. It is good news that not all of the Judiciary is kneeling to the whims of the boss, who points out who should be released, regardless of the crimes he could have committed.
Three: clinging to the fact that democracy guarantees freedom of expression, Petro ignores Lula’s demand that the protesters respect the institutions. That may fit well in Brazil, but here, attacking the Police, setting fire to Cais, attacking public transport, planting a bomb in a shopping center or even trying to overthrow a president in flight, as happened to Duque in his helicopter, It does not awaken from this President anything but feelings of tenderness, even if they involve an attack against the institutions. Total, here the violent protesters will continue to go free, while in Brazil the justice will apply their deserved sanction.
So Lula and Petro may look alike. Both are members of the democratic left, and were even in jail, Lula accused of corruption and Petro as a guerrilla. But he is distancing them from the exercise of authority.
In that the Brazilian comes out very well, and the Colombian very badly.
MARIA ISABEL RUEDA
(Read all columns by María Isabel Rueda in EL TIEMPO, here)