Brazil’s New Regime Fires Army Chief, Bans 10 Opponents -

Brazils new regime

BRAZIL’S NEW REGIME. Twelve weeks after a still-disputed election, new president of Brazil Lula da Silva fired his army chief. Even though Gen. Julio Cesar de Arruda had not heeded calls to forcibly suspend the transfer of power.

Across the country, tens of thousands of protesters had demanded reviews of election malfeasance. Some extremists went so far as to smash windows, spray fire extinguishers & hoses, and trash artworks. But Bolsonaro castigated such destruction of government buildings. Though he refused to concede defeat, he left Brazil for Florida, refusing to take part in the protests.

So the anti-Bolsonaro Supreme-Court Justice Alejandre de Moraes censored ten pro-Bolsonaro congressmen instead. And some of them had the highest vote totals in the general elections. He banned them from all social media. However, the platforms said that the ten had violated no rules. Still, the judge forced the platforms to ban them “within two hours” or face major fines.

Judge vs. democracy

Furthermore, the judge branded well-known reporter Glen Greenwald as a pro-terrorist for criticizing him. Greenwald had to spend hours with lawyers deciding whether or not to make report these events. He said, “I’ve never seen a judge in any democracy with this level of power.” Other journalists have felt the chilling effect of this oppressive overreach.

At one time leftists hated de Moraes as part of a “coup” government. Now they cheer him on as he joins with President Lula in criminalizing dissent.

No wonder the protests won’t stop. Because the protesters don’t want to be silenced or censored for however long Lula’s regime lasts. Already it is shaping up to become far more totalitarian than most of Lula’s supporters bargained for.

Image by Tanishq Sood from Pixabay