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    Bolsonaro Supporters Protest Across Brazil After Election

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    There were more than 200 blockades across Brazil on Tuesday as protesters said they were trying to draw military intervention, hoping it was a path to overturn the election results.Brazil entered its second day of silence from President Jair Bolsonaro following his election loss as his supporters around the country blocked roadways and other infrastructure with demands that the election be overturned.On Tuesday, protesters partially blocked the highway leading to the nation’s largest airport in São Paulo, forcing the cancellation of at least 25 flights. Protesters also set up hundreds of blockades across the rest of the country, disrupting traffic, according to the federal highway police.The demonstrators said they were trying to shut down or “paralyze” the country in order to draw intervention from the military, hoping it was a path to overturn the results of Sunday’s election, in which Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist, defeated the far-right incumbent. Echoing baseless claims from Mr. Bolsonaro ahead of the vote, protesters claimed in interviews and in posts on social media that the vote was stolen — and that they believed they were carrying out what the president wanted.“We want to hear from our president,” said Reginaldo de Moraes, 45, an evangelical pastor standing on the side of the highway leading to São Paulo’s airport. “He has to speak, and we are going to listen. He is our president.”Mr. Bolsonaro has, so far, not spoken publicly. For years, the president has attacked Brazil’s election system as rife with fraud, despite a lack of evidence, and said repeatedly in recent months that he would only accept an election that he believed was “clean.”Blockades along the road leading to Guarulhos International Airport forced the cancellations of at least 25 flights.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesHis silence left one of the world’s largest democracies on edge that there might not be a peaceful transition of power.Several government ministers urged the president to concede on Monday, according to three government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings. By Monday evening, Mr. Bolsonaro had retired to the presidential palace to finish drafting a public response, according to one of the officials, a senior member of Mr. Bolsonaro’s administration. The president planned to release that response on Tuesday, though what exactly he would say and when remained unclear, the senior official said.The officials stressed that the president would make the final decision.The result was confusion inside the government and across the nation. Even as the president stayed silent, his chief of staff spoke with two top advisers to Mr. da Silva, according to the president-elect’s spokesman, who added that officials in Mr. Bolsonaro’s government were giving signs that there would be a normal transition. In Rio de Janeiro, the federal highway police and state police spoke with protesters before they partially blocked a key bridge linking the city with a neighboring area. Maria Magdalena Arrellaga for The New York TimesWhile the protests by Bolsonaro supporters were largely nonviolent and were smaller than the mass demonstrations that some officials had feared ahead of the vote, the disruptions were expanding.The federal highway police said that there were 220 active blockades in 21 of Brazil’s 27 states as of Tuesday morning, and that they had broken up 288 blockades since the election ended.In some cases, it appeared that some law enforcement officials were not intervening in the protests. On Monday, three federal highway police officers stood and watched as protesters blocked the main highway between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil’s two largest cities. In Rio de Janeiro, the federal highway police and state police spoke with protesters before they partially blocked a key bridge linking the city with a neighboring area. The police watched for two hours before the protesters dispersed amid heavy rains. Posts and videos on social media also showed the federal highway police not taking immediate action against blockades across the country.Late Monday, Alexandre de Moraes, a Supreme Court justice, ordered the federal highway police and state police to clear all federal highways. Under the order, the director of the federal highway police faced arrest and a $20,000 fine if his agency did not comply.Around the same time, hundreds of protesters had begun blocking the road to São Paulo’s main airport, Guarulhos International Airport, causing long lines of traffic and forcing airlines to cancel 12 flights on Monday and 13 flights on Tuesday. Just after 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, the federal highway police sprayed a chemical agent toward dozens of protesters who were still blocking two of the three lanes of the airport highway, clearing the blockade. Traffic was flowing within minutes. The police arrested one protester. Demonstrators then stood on the side of the highway waving flags, as authorities warned them to stay off the roadway.Police officials dispersing pro-Bolsonaro protesters on the road to São Paulo’s main airport on Tuesday.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesReginaldo de Moraes, the evangelical pastor who helped lead the protest, said he and other demonstrators were demanding that the military investigate the voter fraud they believed rigged Sunday’s election.“We want the truth about the voting machines,” he said. “We don’t believe them, and we want the Army to take over and count the votes correctly.”Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court justice, had already issued an order against the federal highway police earlier this week. On Election Day, federal highway officers stopped at least 550 buses carrying voters to polls, questioning people aboard. Alexandre de Moraes, who is also Brazil’s elections chief, then ordered the agency’s director to explain why. Election officials said the traffic stops delayed some voters, but did not prevent anyone from voting.The head of the federal highway police has posted extensively about Mr. Bolsonaro on his official Instagram account. That includes a post on the eve of the election that urged people to vote for Mr. Bolsonaro, according to O Globo, one of Brazil’s biggest newspapers. (The kind of message he posted automatically disappears from Instagram after 24 hours and was no longer visible.)While the protesters are calling for military intervention, a military spokesman said on Tuesday that the blockades were a police matter. The president, Brazil’s Congress or the Supreme Court have the power to order the military to contain crowds in emergencies, and some government officials and academics had worried before the election that Mr. Bolsonaro could try to use that power if he refused to concede. As of Tuesday, the military had not commented publicly on the election.Mr. Bolsonaro has attacked Brazil’s electronic voting machines for years, claiming that they are vulnerable to fraud. As a result, three out of four of his supporters trust the machines only a little or not at all, according to various polls in recent months. There is no credible evidence of fraud in the voting machines since they were introduced in 1996, and independent security experts said that while the machines are not perfect, multiple layers of security prevent fraud or errors.Jack Nicas and André Spigariol reported from Brasília and Laís Martins reported from São Paulo. Victor Moriyama contributed reporting from São Paulo, Ana Ionova from Rio de Janeiro and Flávia Milhorance from Barra Mansa, Brazil. More

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      On Brazil’s Bicentennial, Bolsonaro Softens Campaign Rhetoric

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      President Jair Bolsonaro called his supporters and the military to the streets to celebrate Brazil’s 200th anniversary. Then he softened his campaign tone.RIO DE JANEIRO — On the 200th anniversary of Brazil’s independence, President Jair Bolsonaro had roughly half the country celebrating and half the country on edge.Tanks rolled down the streets of São Paulo, the country’s largest city, on Wednesday. Warships paraded off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Jets soared over the nation’s capital, Brasília. And more than a million of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters took to the streets across the vast nation, draped in the green and yellow of Brazil’s flag.For months, the bicentennial had been billed as a test of Brazil’s democracy.The left in Brazil feared that Mr. Bolsonaro would use the moment to declare war on Brazil’s democratic institutions and preview an attempt to hold onto power if he loses the presidential election next month. The right said it would simply be a peaceful Independence Day celebration — with a clear tilt toward the nation’s president — as it had been in years past.In the end, the atmosphere was more of a party than an uprising. And Mr. Bolsonaro — who for months has made worrisome comments about the security of the elections and his willingness to accept the results — took a markedly softer tack in two speeches to his supporters.An aircraft team performing acrobatics over Copacabana beach during Independence Day celebrations in Rio de Janeiro.Dado Galdieri for The New York TimesHe touted what he said were his accomplishments — cheap fuel, relatively low inflation — and focused on campaign promises, including keeping abortion and drugs illegal and fighting what he calls “gender ideology,” or the movement to re-examine the concept of gender.Perhaps his most forceful comments were calling his political rivals “evil” and warning that they would try to break the laws in the Constitution. “Wait for the re-election and see if everyone plays by the rules,” he said. At one point, he appeared to reflect on his past comments: “We all change. We all improve. We can all be better in the future.”The shift in tone was in line with advice Mr. Bolsonaro has been receiving from some senior advisers, who have warned him that attacking the country’s elections systems and democratic institutions is not particularly popular with the moderate voters he needs to win over to prevail in October’s election, according to one senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential meetings.There have also been recent signs of a truce between election officials and Brazil’s armed forces, which have backed Mr. Bolsonaro’s claims that Brazil’s elections systems are vulnerable.Mr. Bolsonaro and his supporters have repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the election in Brazil will be rigged.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesYet Mr. Bolsonaro has shifted tones frequently in the past. The morning before the bicentennial celebrations, he was casting doubt on Brazil’s voting machines in an interview with a right-wing news network. And last Independence Day, his speech caused a brief institutional crisis after he said he would not respect the decisions of one Supreme Court justice. Days later, he walked those comments back.The election, pitting Mr. Bolsonaro against the former leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will be one of the most closely watched votes in Latin America in decades. Brazilians will cast their ballots on Oct. 2 and, if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, again on Oct. 30 in a runoff. Mr. da Silva has held a steady and comfortable lead in the polls.Mr. Bolsonaro, a right-wing nationalist, has made attacks on Brazil’s Supreme Court and its elections systems central to his political rhetoric for years. He has argued, with little evidence, that Brazil’s electronic voting machines are vulnerable to fraud, and he has accused several Supreme Court justices of political persecution..css-1v2n82w{max-width:600px;width:calc(100% – 40px);margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:25px;height:auto;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-family:nyt-franklin;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1v2n82w{margin-left:20px;margin-right:20px;}}@media only screen and (min-width:1024px){.css-1v2n82w{width:600px;}}.css-161d8zr{width:40px;margin-bottom:18px;text-align:left;margin-left:0;color:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);border:1px solid var(–color-content-primary,#121212);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-161d8zr{width:30px;margin-bottom:15px;}}.css-tjtq43{line-height:25px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-tjtq43{line-height:24px;}}.css-x1k33h{font-family:nyt-cheltenham;font-size:19px;font-weight:700;line-height:25px;}.css-ok2gjs{font-size:17px;font-weight:300;line-height:25px;}.css-ok2gjs a{font-weight:500;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}.css-1c013uz{margin-top:18px;margin-bottom:22px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz{font-size:14px;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:20px;}}.css-1c013uz a{color:var(–color-signal-editorial,#326891);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:500;font-size:16px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz a{font-size:13px;}}.css-1c013uz a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? What’s their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source.Learn more about our process.Those judges cleared corruption charges against Mr. da Silva, freeing him from prison and allowing him to run in this year’s election. They have forced social networks to take down inflammatory or false posts from Mr. Bolsonaro and his supporters (as well as from Mr. da Silva). And they are investigating Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies in a number of cases, including for accusations of spreading misinformation and leaking classified information.One judge, Alexandre de Moraes, who is also Brazil’s new elections chief, stoked tensions further last month when he ordered several prominent businessmen’s homes to be searched, their bank accounts to be frozen and some of their social-media accounts to be blocked. His evidence supporting the action was a series of leaked text messages that suggested the businessmen would support a military coup if Mr. da Silva won the presidency.A military parade on Wednesday commemorating the 200th anniversary of Brazilian independence in São Paulo.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesMr. Bolsonaro has called Mr. Moraes’s actions against the businessmen a gross abuse of power. On Wednesday, he said the men’s privacy was violated. Earlier in the day, one of those businessmen, Luciano Hang, the owner of a Brazilian department-store chain, stood between Mr. Bolsonaro and the president of Portugal for a period as they watched the military parade in Brasília.Mr. Bolsonaro had called his supporters to the streets to celebrate “our sacred liberty.” Political analysts and leaders on the left had worried about the prospects of violence; a group of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters had tried and failed to get past the barricades of the Supreme Court during similar Independence Day celebrations last year.Yet the festivities were peaceful. There were families with children, older people in wheelchairs, and vendors selling beer, snacks, Brazilian flags and shirts with Mr. Bolsonaro’s face. Authorities had increased security, including deploying snipers and drones, and there were few signs that supporters were planning to challenge the country’s institutions beyond chants that Mr. da Silva belonged in jail and that Mr. Moraes should be impeached.Despite Mr. Bolsonaro’s toned-down rhetoric, his supporters still wanted to focus on the Supreme Court and the voting machines.“The Supreme Court is supposed to be the guardian of the Constitution, and yet every day they’re finding a new way to rip it up,” said Gabriel Miguel, 32, a real-estate lawyer draped in a Brazilian flag and wearing a camouflage hat. He accused Mr. da Silva’s party of cheating in past elections, and said there would be consequences if they attempted fraud this year. “They wouldn’t dare to do anything against democracy,” he said.Supporters of Mr. Bolsonaro in São Paulo on Wednesday, where merchants peddled Bolsonaro-related items.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesMany Brazilians on the left accused Mr. Bolsonaro and his supporters of co-opting Brazil’s bicentennial celebrations for a political event. Mr. da Silva told his supporters to instead join him for a rally in Rio on Thursday.Mr. Bolsonaro arrived at his speech in Rio on a motorcycle, leading a parade of motorcycles driven by supporters. Such “motociatas,” or motorcycle rallies, have been a hallmark of his political brand, featured prominently in his campaign videos, and his way of visiting areas of Brazil outside major population centers.In Brasília, he watched the military parade from a stage with his wife, Michelle, and a phalanx of government and military officials. “We are here to fulfill God’s calling,” Michelle Bolsonaro told the crowd. “The enemy shall not win.”In his speech there, Mr. Bolsonaro continued his strategy of making his masculinity a central part of his campaign. “I’ve been telling single men, singles who are tired of being unhappy, find a woman,” he said. “A princess. Marry her.” He then kissed Michelle.The crowd began chanting “imbrochável,” a slightly vulgar Portuguese word that translates roughly to “never limp” that Mr. Bolsonaro has adopted as part of his political brand.Mr. Bolsonaro joined the crowd and chanted: “Never limp! Never limp! Never limp!”More than a million supporters of Mr. Bolsonaro turned out across the country on Wednesday, including in São Paulo.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesAndré Spigariol contributed reporting from Brasília, and Lis Moriconi from Rio de Janeiro. More

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      La oposición brasileña necesita unirse para acabar con Bolsonaro

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyOpiniónSupported byContinue reading the main storyComentarioLa oposición brasileña necesita unirse para acabar con BolsonaroLas elecciones municipales de Brasil fueron una dura derrota para el presidente, pero una oposición dividida podría favorecerlo.El presidente de Brasil, Jair BolsonaroCredit…Ueslei Marcelino/ReutersEs periodista y narrador.21 de diciembre de 2020BARCELONA, España — El gran derrotado en las elecciones municipales de noviembre en Brasil fue el presidente Jair Bolsonaro. La mayoría de sus candidatos perdió y sus resultados en São Paulo y Río de Janeiro fueron humillantes. Aunque conserva parte del apoyo popular —del 35 al 37 por ciento—, su respaldo electoral se redujo al de cuando era solo un diputado gritón y maleducado al que nadie tomaba en serio.Pero su derrota no significó un triunfo de la izquierda, que recuperó poco espacio y solo gobernará una capital, Belém (Pará). Fue la derecha de antes —de cuando ser “de derecha” no incluía ser antivacunas ni defender la tortura— que salió victoriosa, porque reconquistó votos perdidos y atrajo a electores del centro con candidatos moderados, contrarios al extremismo del presidente.Aunque las elecciones municipales tengan su dinámica propia, con factores locales, muestran tendencias que anticipan un cuadro complejo para las presidenciales de 2022. Si bien Bolsonaro sufrió una clara derrota, no hay una oposición fuerte. El voto en su contra está dividido entre una izquierda aún golpeada y fragmentada —pero con capacidad de movilización— y una derecha sin un proyecto claro y aún atada a polarizaciones del pasado. Si ambos grupos votaran a un mismo candidato en dos años, podrían vencer.Hay dos futuros posibles para Brasil: Bolsonaro podrá ser recordado como una breve anomalía histórica que dejó un desastre (más de 186.000 muertos por el coronavirus, la Amazonía amenazada, la democracia moribunda y una sociedad enfrentada por una política de odio), pero que al final fue superada; o bien como el inicio de una transformación sistémica que terminó por erosionar la democracia y la modernidad en Brasil. Para evitar esto último, los demócratas de todo el arco político deben buscar juntos la salida del infierno, como hicieron los chilenos en los noventa frente al dictador Augusto Pinochet.El golpe parlamentario contra Dilma Rousseff, en 2016, y la posterior persecución y encarcelamiento político de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva son una herida abierta entre izquierda y derecha, pero algún entendimiento será necesario. Sin renunciar a la disputa ideológica, ambos bloques podrían trazar una línea roja contra el fascismo.Para ello, por un lado, la izquierda debería abandonar su guerra de egos, modernizarse y volver a dialogar fuera de su burbuja. Por otro lado, los sectores democráticos de la derecha y la centroderecha deberían alejarse de quienes, en sus filas y en el mal llamado “centrão” (partidos clientelistas cuyo peso en el Congreso les permite negociar cargos y prebendas), prefieren ser socios menores de un presidente autoritario.Hay antecedentes que Brasil podría observar. A finales de los ochenta, la oposición a la dictadura militar en Chile logró unir a partidos de izquierda, centro y derecha comprometidos con la democracia. Esa peculiar alianza derrotó al dictador en el referéndum de 1988 y ganó en 1989 las primeras elecciones presidenciales libres desde el golpe de 1973.Si en Brasil no fuese posible una concertación a la chilena, al menos debería haber un compromiso para enfrentar en relativa alianza a Bolsonaro y apoyar a quien llegue a la segunda vuelta para derrotarlo en 2022.Hay un cambio de tendencia que favorece esa posibilidad. En 2018, el desconocido Wilson Witzel fue electo gobernador de Río de Janeiro con una victoria aplastante gracias al apoyo público de los hijos de Bolsonaro (luego fue apartado del cargo por denuncias de corrupción). En uno de sus actos de campaña, mientras Witzel levantaba el puño, un candidato vestido con una remera de Bolsonaro mostró una placa rota con el nombre de Marielle Franco, concejala de izquierda asesinada a tiros por sicarios de una mafia con vínculos a la familia del presidente. Entonces, la “ola” de la extrema derecha era tan fuerte que ese candidato fue el legislador más votado del estado.Pero esa ola ya no tiene la misma fuerza. Bolsonaro publicó en Twitter una lista de sus apadrinados para estas elecciones municipales. Aunque luego borró el tuit, la derrota era evidente: de los 13 candidatos a alcalde que apoyaba, 11 perdieron.Hay que prestar atención a las dos grandes capitales. En São Paulo, el candidato del presidente, Celso Russomanno, apenas obtuvo el 10,5 por ciento de los votos. En una segunda vuelta que pareció un retorno a la normalidad, un candidato de izquierda, Guilherme Boulos, y un liberal de centroderecha, Bruno Covas, se enfrentaron de forma civilizada, y cuando Covas venció dijo que “es posible hacer política sin odio”.En Río de Janeiro, el candidato que Bolsonaro respaldó, el actual alcalde, Marcelo Crivella (pastor homofóbico y sobrino del dueño de la Iglesia Universal del Reino de Dios), fue humillado en las urnas. Su adversario en la segunda vuelta, Eduardo Paes, recibió el apoyo del electorado de izquierda pese a ser de centroderecha y ganó en todos los barrios.Bruno Covas celebra su victoria en las elecciones municipales de Brasil, en donde ganó la reelección a la alcaldía de São Paulo.Credit…Amanda Perobelli/ReutersEduardo Paes vota durante las elecciones de noviembre, en donde obtuvo la victoria para ser el alcalde de Río de Janeiro.Credit…Sergio Moraes/ReutersCovas, Paes y otros vencedores se diferencian, por su moderación, de sus propios partidos, que en los últimos años se acercaron peligrosamente a la extrema derecha. El éxito de los candidatos moderados parece ser la lección de estas elecciones para la derecha.Antes del balotaje presidencial de 2018, que concluyó con la victoria de Bolsonaro, el diario Estado de S. Paulo afirmó en un editorial que elegir entre Fernando Haddad (del partido de Lula) y Jair Bolsonaro era “muy difícil”. De un lado, estaba Haddad, un político sin antecedentes de corrupción, profesor universitario, con buenas gestiones como alcalde y ministro. Del otro, Bolsonaro, un militar retirado que reivindicaba la dictadura, amenazaba a sus adversarios y hacía campaña con mentiras. Pero dos años después, la elección no parece tan difícil. Los resultados de la gestión de Bolsonaro confirman lo falsa que era esa simetría. Solo en las últimas semanas, el presidente brasileño ha realizado una campaña contra las vacunas en plena pandemia de la COVID-19, en el segundo país del mundo con más muertes.La situación de Brasil no es normal y hace falta responsabilidad histórica.En 2022, en la primera o la segunda vuelta, todos los demócratas deben unirse para impedir la reelección del peor presidente de su historia, aunque eso signifique hacer acuerdos con adversarios de toda la vida. Será imprescindible para que la pesadilla Bolsonaro acabe para siempre.Bruno Bimbi es periodista y narrador. Ha escrito los libros Matrimonio igualitario y El fin del armario. Vivió diez años en Brasil y fue corresponsal para la televisión argentina.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More