Brazil and the United States are the largest democracies in the Western Hemisphere. They have a longstanding partnership rooted in a shared commitment to sustainable economic growth and prosperity, respect for human rights, protection of the environment, and strong defense, health, and security cooperation. In 2023, the two countries celebrated the bicentennial of their relationship.
However, 2023 also marks when “a grim twinning” conjoined the two nations, when both became partners in riots meant to restore a leader to power after elections that were lost fair and square. On Jan. 8 in the Brazilian capital of Brasília, supporters of Brazil’s ousted ex-president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed the main buildings of the federal government’s three branches.
“I would say the attack in Brazil was worse because they attacked all three of the biggest democratic institutions. So it wasn’t only an attack on the Capitol like in the U.S. It was kind of a message that they don’t believe in any of the democratic institutions that control our country,” observed Laís Martins, a Brazilian freelance journalist, as reported in PBS News.
Bolsonaro has long reminded American observers of Trump, and not only for his style of politics and indifference to democratic checks on his own power. Both have endured corruption scandals and heated partisan impeachments. Both contested their electoral defeats, amplifying unsupported conspiracy theories of voter fraud — but there is a massive difference in how the Brazilians responded to the threat to their democracy.
“In the aftermath of the January 6 violence, the Biden administration reportedly balked at pursuing an actual impeachment of Donald Trump, stymying Democrats in the House who wanted to pursue an aggressive accountability strategy,” wrote Maura Donegan in The Guardian.
Not so with the Brazilians. The two countries, whose political dramas had momentarily converged, moved in completely different directions. The new president, Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva, immediately denounced the mob as “neo-fascists,” and the day after the Brazilian rioters were in police custody in a huge warehouse. The show of police force against violence, and the promise of legal accountability for the crimes, sent a firm message that protecting democracy and holding malign actors to account is essential.
Brazil’s Federal Police indicted Bolsonaro and 36 other members of his government for the crimes of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, and criminal organization for the attempted coup. But perhaps Brazil’s most important move, and a key difference with the unfolding of events in the U.S., was the speed with which Brazil’s courts reacted.
Less than a week after the assault, the Supreme Court authorized an investigation into whether Bolsonaro incited the riot. The results were swift and definitive. Six months later, Bolsonaro was barred from running for office for eight years. The Supreme Court has convicted hundreds for their role and is pursuing extradition of Brazilian nationals linked to the coup. A top Brazilian general was arrested last December for alleged obstruction of justice in the investigation of the coup.
“Unlike Bolsonaro, Trump benefited from the self-serving failure by most Republican leaders to stand up to him as well as from a slow judicial process. Brazilian democracy managed to survive because even though the extremists learned from U.S. insurrectionists, defenders of democracy also learned from America’s mistakes,” opined Frida Ghitis in World Politics Review.
Brazil has shown remarkable resilience and effectiveness in countering attempts to centralize executive authority and erode democracy. Their Supreme Court forged the definitive barrier to the attempt to break their Constitutional Democracy.
Dr. William Kolbe, an Andover resident, is a retired high school and college teacher and former Peace Corps volunteer in Tonga and El Salvador. He can be reached at bila.kolbe9@gmail.com.