by Editor’s note: Arick Wierson is an Emmy Award-winning television producer and former senior media advisor to former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Wierson holds a master’s degree in economics from the State University of Campinas in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. He has been working with the state for almost 30 years, advising corporate and political clients on communication strategies. Follow him up @ArickWierson. View more opinions on CNN.
Sao Paulo
CNN
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It was supposed to be a lazy Sunday for my family – we enjoyed it.”Caipirinhas’ and other traditional Brazilian dishes on our last day in the country after three weeks of vacation.
Then came the news that thousands of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro had stormed the headquarters of all branches of the federal government in the capital, Brasilia, and vandalized the buildings of the Plaza of the Three Powers – Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace.
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“Barbaric”: Brazil’s president reacts to demonstrators who storm government buildings
The invasion of these key government buildings, which eerily mirrors the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, was followed by two months of nationwide protests by Bolsonaro supporters. Without evidence, they claim the election in October – where Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva Bolsonaro narrowly defeated – has been tampered with or stolen. Although it was a close runoff, Lula da Silva still won more than 2 million votes.
Sunday’s stunning attack comes a week after Lula da Silva was sworn in at an inauguration on Jan. 1. Avoiding the traditional protocols of transfer of power, Bolsonaro instead chose to travel to the heart of the United States possible criminal investigations during his time as President.
Exploiting what the new President “the stillness of a sundayThe strategic objective of Bolsonaro’s allies could not be clearer: to destabilize Latin America’s largest democracy.
Already, many Brazilian political pundits are speculating that the invaders were not only aiming to break into the country’s seat of government, but also to stage a long-term occupation of key buildings. This would prevent Lula da Silva’s government from functioning effectively in hopes that pro-Bolsonaro forces within the military and law enforcement agencies could step in and create the necessary conditions for Bolsonaro to return to Brazil and take power .
What happened on Sunday cannot be glossed over – these attacks were the opening acts of an attempted coup.
In pictures: Bolsonaro supporters storm the Brazilian Congress
Lula da Silva, who was traveling in São Paulo state at the time of the attacks, held an impromptu press conference and succinctly denounced the invasion, calling out to Bolsonaro and his supporters indicate expressly that all responsible vandals will be investigated and prosecuted.
He put the blame for the attack squarely on his predecessor’s feet. Calling the violence “unprecedented” in Brazil’s history, he said a thorough investigation would look not only at who was involved, but also who is funding these “bolsonaristas,” as they are called in Portuguese and have supported.
Like the political dynamics in the US that led to the January 6 uprising, the events in Brasilia are the latest chapter in the ongoing division of a deeply polarized country.
Lula da Silva’s victory in October was a scathing rebuke of Bolsonaro and his brand of tropical MAGA called “Bolsonarianism.” Like former US President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro has had a difficult tenure riddled with controversy, particularly his Dealing with Covid-19. (Brazil almost suffered 700,000 dead in the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization.)
Bolsonaros Anti-LGBTQ Agenda, weak environmental policy and autocratic tendencies made him something of a pariah among the country’s leftists, earning him the nickname “Trump of the tropics.”
But Lula da Silva, now in his third term as president, is in some ways a figure as controversial as he is divisive. After two terms in office from 2003 to 2011, he celebrated a remarkable political comeback with his victory in 2022. Just a few years before running for the presidency again, he was serving a prison sentence for his role in Brazil’s biggest corruption scandal, dubbed “Car wash operation.”
But the Brazilian judiciary overturned his conviction in 2021, freeing him to run again. Many on the left saw Lula da Silva as the perfect antidote to Bolsonaro and the sharp right turn he had steered the country.
Bolsonaro didn’t concede his Oct. 30 defeat, but did issue a series of signals suggesting he wasn’t planning an aggressive challenge for the election — a move that infuriated many of his die-hard supporters while also giving them hope that one bigger plan in the future is working to take back the power.
Pro-Bolsonaro elements camped out in Brasilia for weeks ahead of the Jan. 1 inauguration, and last month there was even an arrest in a suspected bomb attack to prevent Lula da Silva from taking office. But in the new year, the transfer of power went smoothly.
Like millions of Brazilians in this country of nearly 220 million people, I’ve been following the local media and followed an event as chilling as the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th.
Just hours after this historic event, there was no denying that the history books will chronicle it as the most significant attack on Latin America’s largest democracy since Brazil’s return to democratic elections in the late 1980s.
How Lula da Silva deals with this attack on democracy will become a hallmark of his third term. He was elected to reverse many of the Bolsonaro government’s far-right policies, reintegrate Brazil into the international world economic order, and serve as administrator of the Amazon rainforest and one of the largest landmasses in the world, position the country at the forefront of the planet’s existential threat from climate change.
He still has to deal with all of these issues, but now he has to focus on other far more pressing challenges: restoring the rule of law; reaffirm the country’s commitment to democratic institutions by the military, law enforcement and civilian institutions; and revitalize Brazilians’ faith in democracy.
His presidency is just over a week old, but it must now quickly confront a real and ongoing threat to democracy.
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