THOUSANDS of Brazilians have taken to the streets amid concern President Jair Bolsonaro will try to stay in power even if he loses October’s election.
Protesters marched in several cities on Thursday in defence of democracy, over fears the far-right leader would not respect the outcome of the vote.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly sought to discredit Brazil’s voting system.
He has claimed that electronic voting machines enable cheating, because of the absence of a paper trail.
A year ago, Bolsonaro tried to change the system to introduce printed ballot papers, but the proposal was defeated in Congress.
Critics of the president have voiced fears that he is preparing to follow the example of former US President Donald Trump and allege widespread fraud if he loses the election.
The demonstrations came on the same day that a citizens’ manifesto was read out and signed by nearly a million Brazilians.
On Thursday, jurists, intellectuals, artists, workers and businessmen took part in the reading of the ‘Letter to Brazilian Women and Men in Defence of the Democratic Rule of Law’ – a document which was prepared by Sao Paulo University’s Law School and has been signed by over 900,000 Brazilians so far.
The text, which updates a manifesto that Brazilians produced against the military dictatorship in 1977, is aimed at alerting citizens and the international community to the veiled threats of a coup d’état made by the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who will seek reelection in October.
Crowds protested in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Recife, while thousands gathered outside the University of São Paulo, where a petition ‘in defence of the democratic state of law’ was read out.
People held up banners denouncing Bolsonaro and proclaiming: ‘respect the vote, respect the people’. Some were dressed as electronic voting machines, in a reference to the president’s cheating claims.
The president, in office since 2019 and flagging in opinion polls, denounced the petition, tweeting that the constitution was the only letter that mattered in guaranteeing democracy.
Several of his election rivals have signed the petition, including leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who tweeted: ‘Our country used to be sovereign and respected. We need to get it back.’
- On Wednesday, Brazil’s Electoral Public Ministry defended the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) ruling that President Jair Bolsonaro be fined for early electoral propaganda, after his speech to foreign ambassadors on July 18.
The electoral deputy attorney general, Paulo Gonet Franco, said that there was ‘unacceptable propaganda’ in the president’s ‘victimisation’ speech because of the false arguments Bolsonaro used to point out that the electronic ballot box system is unreliable and could harm him.
Brazilian law prevents presidential candidates from publicly asking for votes before the beginning of the electoral campaign, which this year formally starts on August 16.
The Electoral Public Ministry understands that Bolsonaro broke the law and, in addition to a fine, asks that social networks remove the video of the meeting with the ambassadors and the attacks on the electronic ballot boxes, something YouTube already did on its own on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Labour Court of the 8th Region determined that the company Grupo Popular must pay compensation of US$24,341 to Brunna Venancio, a Brazilian worker who was fired for posting messages against President Jair Bolsonaro.
‘I am completely against this misrule and this horrible, corrupt, bad-tempered, fascist, Nazi, imbecile, incapable, and mediocre human being,’ Brunna wrote on September 8, 2021, on the eve of a national protest against Bolsonaro.
Her father, one of the company’s partners, sent her messages warning her that ‘antagonistic positions’ should be removed. The audios recorded on her cell phone served to prove that Brunna was the victim of political harrasment at the workplace.
In the audios, the Brazilian businessman is heard admitting that he is speaking ‘with full awareness’ of what he was doing.
‘I own this business, OK?’ he said after emphasising with high-sounding words that he was disgusted and fed up with her political positions.
Brunna Venancio, who worked at Grupo Popular from 2018 to 2021, will receive compensation for unjustified dismissal and other benefits that she did not receive while working, including the 13th salary and vacations.
- Young Colombians who are studying at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Cuba and those graduates of that educational institution have expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to be trained as professionals and better human beings.
During the second meeting of the academic-cultural week ‘Fidel entre Nosotros’ (Fidel among Us), held on Wednesday, participants expressed their gratitude to the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, for the creation of this emblematic centre where many young people across the world can comply with their dream of becoming doctors.
The meeting was part of several activities to celebrate Fidel Castro’s 96th birthday, in which the chair that bears his name organised it, with the collaboration of solidarity groups and individuals.
Other young people, on vacation in Colombia, reported how Cuba prepared to fight Covid-19, from neighbourhoods to medical and scientific institutions, and how they participated in the research work along with the rest of the medical students and the community.
Finally, those attending the meeting lit candles to Fidel Castro and expressed the reasons that inspired them.
- US Congresspersons Jim McGovern, Gregory Meeks and Barbara Lee on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to put politics aside, lift the blockade and help Cuba after the devastating fire in Matanzas.
The three members of the US House of Representatives expressed in a joint statement that disasters like this ‘demand an urgent and meaningful response from neighbouring countries’.
Now is the time to put politics aside and prioritise humanitarian engagement, environmental protection and regional cooperation, they stressed.
The parliamentarians called on the Democratic administration to ‘immediately offer the appropriate assistance to facilitate international response efforts’ to deal with the fire that has been burning the Supertanker Base in Matanzas, about 100 kilometres east of Havana, since Friday, August 5.
They also urged ‘to suspend any relevant sanctions so as to expedite such a response, and to deliver much-needed humanitarian relief to the hundreds of Cuban citizens affected by this crisis.’
McGovern, Meeks and Lee, who chair the Rules Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, respectively, called for support for Cuba’s recovery.
This initiative joins a similar one by prominent figures globally, including politicians, intellectuals, scientists, clergymen, artists, musicians, leaders and activists, who demanded in an open letter to the US president, to end the blockade in this exceptional situation.
Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio expressed gratitude on August 6 for the signs of support from organisations and citizens in the United States, and the offer of technical assistance from the government of that country.
- The Congress of Coahuila confirmed that it asked the Mexican government to cancel the mining concessions in that region, after the flooding of a coal shaft where 10 miners are trapped.
In a press release, the state legislature said that the exploitation of the workers and the risks that cause deaths, merit the cancellation of these permits.
Congresswoman Yolanda Elizondo said that the flooding of the El Pinabete shaft of the Sabina mine, demonstrated acts of complicity, negligence and corruption that are present in the authorisation to exploit coal, which lead to accidents and that is why the coal region is constantly in mourning.
According to the newspaper El Sol de Lagunilla, relatives of the trapped miners, and the five who managed to get out of the mine, denounced threats from people posing as members of the Prosecutor’s Office so that they would not give statements.
The truth is that the owner of the mine has not come forward and his identity has not been revealed.
On the other hand, Wednesday was a crucial day, (because of Tuesday’s experience of a group of divers who did not manage to enter the waters), they were going to try to accelerate the extraction in order to lower the flooding to a level of 1.4 metres so that they can work on the search and rescue of the miners.
Hopes of finding them alive after drone raids through the mine’s interior and tunnels have been greatly diminished, family members admitted.
