More than a dozen Brazilian lawmakers, led by former President Jair Bolsonaro’s son and current congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, condemned the persecution suffered by opponents of radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Congress on Tuesday. . hearing.
This group of parliamentarians and Brazilian journalist Paulo Figueiredo shared their personal experiences in parliament, detailing the increased persecution and censorship used by Lula’s government to single out opposition members.
The hearing was led by Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations. “Since the end of 2022, Brazilians have been subjected to massive human rights violations by the Brazilian authorities,” said Congressman Smith.
In a speech, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who represents Sao Paulo in Brazil’s lower house of parliament, denounced the persecution suffered by his father, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, and claimed that Biden “didn’t say a word.” The administration surrounding Bolsonaro’s persecution.
“As I have always warned in my speeches, [Brazil’s] Tell Congress about the danger of my country turning into Cuba or Venezuela with concentration camps,” Eduardo Bolsonaro said. “Unfortunately, today I live in my own movie about concentration camps. The limits no longer exist.”
“We are living through this situation right now without a single word being said by the Biden administration, the State Department, or the authorities of the United States of America, the homeland of democracy,” he continued. “Unfortunately, Brazil is no longer a democracy.”
After leaving office on December 31, 2022, former President Jair Bolsonaro faces a lengthy indictment and court ruling. Actions against Bolsonaro include, but are not limited to: Banned He cannot run for public office until 2030, and police raided both of his homes. House and his other sons.
🇺🇸Coletiva de imprensa no Capitólio, o congresso mais visto do mundo.
To establish Brazilian democracy in normal conditions and live a safe life… pic.twitter.com/ljCItg7B62
— Eduardo Bolsonaro🇷 (@BolsonaroSP) March 12, 2024
Most recently, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered Bolsonaro handed over his passport to police and was effectively banned from leaving the country as part of an investigation into a “coup” plot allegedly orchestrated by Bolsonaro after he narrowly lost the October 2022 election to Lula. is.
The overwhelming majority of court decisions and public investigations against Jair Bolsonaro were ordered by STF minister and “anti-fake news campaigner” Alexandre de Moraes. Mr. de Moraes is one of Brazil’s most powerful men and has led censorship campaigns and police raids in the past. Member of Parliamentcomedian, content creator, individual People who expressed support for Bolsonaro. During the 2022 presidential election, Mr. de Moraes censored Bolsonaro’s campaign forbade him from calling Lula a “thief” or a “criminal,” citing the Brazilian president’s multiple past convictions on corruption charges. The STF overturned Lula’s conviction on procedural grounds in 2021, allowing him to run for president again in 2022.
De Moraes has previously issued mandatory judgments against social media platforms. limit Allow access to certain profiles within the Brazilian territory to avoid paying hefty fines every day. In January, Lula and de Moraes again phone He called for the regulation and censorship of social media in Brazil, calling for regulations to be approved in the name of “dismantling fake news.”
“We no longer have the privilege to tell the truth, to express our thoughts, to express our opinions,” Brazilian lawmaker Gustavo Geyer said at the hearing. “All these institutions that are valuable to democracy are being kidnapped and used as instruments of repression. They only serve to arrest and oppress people for their opinions.”
File/Vice President Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in São Paulo, Brazil, on October 11, 2019. (Nelson Almeida/AFP via Getty Images)
“Many other members of Congress are not here today because their passports were confiscated,” he added.
In his remarks, Brazilian lawmaker Marcel Van Hutten described the situation in Brazil as a “developing dictatorship” that is different from other dictatorships.
“What we’re seeing in Brazil is being created in a more sophisticated and dangerous way,” Van Hatten said. “The justice system itself is leading the charge in systemic collapse, making it even more difficult for the world to understand a sad and dangerous process.”
Brazilian journalist Paulo Figueiredo told Congress how he had been censored by de Moraes and condemned the silence of journalists in Brazil.
“Until 2022, I was the most-watched political journalist in the country on prime time cable TV,” Figueiredo said. “Then, overnight, my social media was blocked in Brazil, my Brazilian passport was canceled, and my bank account was frozen by order of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.”
The journalist said he had “5 million followers across various social media platforms” at the time.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan writer who chronicles life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
