The Bolsonaro government’s idea of a new defence policy figures in the text of a resolution for Congress on “The possibility of war against neighbouring countries”. In other words: ‘Obey Trump or his successor, and attack Venezuela’. American presence and power in Brazilian institutions is every time more overt.
BRAZIL: DOWN WITH THE BOLSONARO GOVERNMENT’S NEW DEFENCE POLICY (DICTATED BY THE UNITED STATES)!
On a par with Trump, Bolsonaro represents and fortifies this genocidal policy, and against the Brazilian people too. Brazil is the second country for the highest number of dead and infected by Covid19, with nearly 80,000 dead and 2 million infected (123,000 dead and 4 million infected as of 2.9.20, Edit.).
The country has no policy to fight the health crisis. No health minister looks for adequate solutions, or learns from the experiences that have worked in Cuba, China, New Zealand who adopted capable and efficient measures to defeat the virus. No specialist with a minimum of conscience and dignity wants to run the risk of working in a [health] ministry so identified with the government’s genocidal policy in the matter of the pandemic. There, the conditions and the tasks are imposed by the government. The first demand is that one compromises with the negationist policies of the government – against science, against all the WHO [1] guidelines and against the viewpoint of the most reputable specialists in the fields of infectology and of this pandemic. Bolsonaro went as far as to advise the hospitals and the population that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are the cures for the infected patients; he also said that he cured himself that way. It does not seem unfounded to suspect that his insistence on those drugs serves interests in industrial supply-lines and that this has strong links with the Armed Forces.
It is in this disastrous rigmarole that Bolsonaro cheats people and lies to make himself pass as victim. As not enough popular pressure exerts itself against him, he goes on representing the worst in society where he bets on what divides and stimulates hatred. This was prepared in advance and for just this result under the guidance of North American agents. Bolsonaro has been allowed to create a sophisticated Bolsonarist Cabinet whose function is to spread violence. It is from there that operations are being systematically promoted, lies disseminated and attacks launched against the left and the opposition. From there, those involved put messages on the social networks, organise street demonstrations, call for the return of the dictatorship and the AI-5 [2]. They dare the Supreme Court (STF) [3] and Congress. They demand the closure of Congress and the arrest of the Members who do not follow the Bolsonarist line.
Venezuela is well prepared for a counter-attack:
An internal crisis is opening up in the political sectors of the coup that support the Bolsonaro clan. From there, have emerged a so-called “Front for Democracy” promoted by the PSDB [4], along with an action-group opposed to “the hate cabinet” [5] thanks to the actions of a minister who was able to start an investigation into how the cabinet is financed – everything pointing to various entrepreneurs. The Judiciary is now investigating how Fake News were used in Bolsonaro’s victory in 2018 against Fernando Haddad (who stood instead of Lula then in prison).
Statistical data shows that the political violence of this government increases dramatically against the Black people and the poor; and that the latter are also the principle victims of the Covid-19 in the suburbs and the marginalised neighbourhoods. Behind all this, the direct participation of agents of the CIA and of the US State Department can be guessed at, serving their interests behind the politics and the modus operandi of the Bolsonaro government.
The Workers Party (PT) and the left have long said that Bolsonaro got his electoral victory through most of those forces – the same that have wished to occupy Latin America in recent years. These people work through lawfare (misuse of the legal system and principles), espionage and bullying. They work through hidden forces with steadily expanding means. They consolidate a subordinated right-wing whose policies guarantee their interests in the region. They dare the Armed Forces to start an adventure like attacking Venezuela, but the latter is very well prepared for a counter attack. Venezuela’s Bolivarian government has a loyal army. It has an armed and well-trained civic-military alliance to fight back with, on top of the military and strategic support which it gets from Russia, China and Iran!
This time, US imperialism looks for an advantage in the pandemic. It uses it to hamper the major mobilisations against its predatory attacks on the governments that don’t line up behind its criminal projects of world destruction. With a totally subservient OAS (Organisation of American States), it can control countries like Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Peru, whilst financing and equipping sophisticated groups of mercenaries and fascist militias set up with the same know-how as the ‘Islamic State’.
Reject the New Defence Policy proposal:
Along with the left and progressive parties united together, the opposition in Congress must reject the New Defence Policy proposal that will be coming up soon in Congress and the National Defence Council (Consultative body of the President). As the text raises the possibility of war with the neighbouring countries, they (opposition) must debate extensively with the rest of society the need to recuperate their rights and their dignity.
Former President Lula warned against the serious risk of war in South America should this military surrender get voted by the Defence Council of Brazil.
The people are already suffering from a pandemic war at the hand of this genocidal government. Another war will only compound the genocide already resulting from the present political “pandemonium”. All another war will do is surrender the country to the dominant powers, the United States, international finance. Instead of fighting the neighbours, the country needs solutions for a large-scale economic and social development; and solutions to this pandemic that rampages with devastating effects around in region. Like the ‘Grupo Puebla’ [6] has done, integrative goals, public & State policies and regional economic cooperation must be fortified.
In solidarity with the FUP tankers [7], the need is to fight off the privatization of Petrobrás, the occupation of Amazonia, the vote to slash the Labour rights and the Social Security rights. State investments for social and health purposes need urgent approval; and attention needs to be paid to the country’s marginalised. Such is the base for any true democracy in any Front of the Left between the progressive forces.
Posadistas Hoje, 20 July 2020
[1] World Health Organization.
[2] AI-5 has been a legal provision decreed under the military dictatorship of 1964-1985. It enabled the army and the judiciary to close Congress, impose censorship and practice torture. During a visit in Washington in November 2019, the Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Quedes said that “no-one should be surprised at any one calling for AI-5”. The Workers Party (Lula) denounced this declaration most energetically. Even the head of the Supreme Court, Dias Toffoli, condemned Quedes’ speech because in is view “AI-5 is incompatible with democracy”. In October 2019, Eduardo Bolsonaro – the son – had said that his father could always consider the return of “legal AI-5 if the left radicalizes”.
[3] STF: From the start of the Covid-19 epidemic in Brazil, Bolsonaro has attended street rallies many times. There, the demonstrators call for both the closure of Congress and the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), in an evocation of the first action taken by the military when it took power in 1964.
[4] PSDB: It is the Brazilian Social Democracy party (or Social Democratic Party) founded 1988. It won government in 1995, a few years after its formation, under Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
[5] The ‘Hate Cabinet’ – (Gabinete de Odio). This is the name given to the framework of webs and social networks that helped Jair Bolsonaro win the presidency. President Bolsonaro now stimulate ‘fuck you’ demonstrations (as called) where some people call for the return of the military dictatorship.
[6] The Grupo Puebla was founded in 2019. On 10 July 2020, it held a zoom meeting focused on the Covid-19 pandemic, with 80 progressive leaders from 17 countries. It contains representatives from the actual governments in Argentina, Mexico and Spain – as well as 8 former presidents and a number of MPs and well-known world political figures. The Grupo has repudiated some judiciary procedures “with political intent” now taking place against the ex-presidents Evo Morales, Rafael Correa and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
[7] FUP tankers: They are the United Tankers Federation, alongside the CUT Union Federation (TUC). In February, they launched an indefinite strike against the mass sackings of oil workers: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/brazilian-court-suspends-mass-sacking-petrobras-strike-rolls
Note the Brazil solidarity Initiative in London: https://nocoupinbrazil.wordpress.com/author/nocoupinbrazil/
The featured image shows the strike of the Renault workers at Curitiba.
