{"id":23227,"date":"2022-08-10T11:37:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T18:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=23227"},"modified":"2022-08-10T11:37:36","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T18:37:36","slug":"over-800000-brazilians-sign-pro-democracy-manifesto-amid-bolsonaro-coup-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/08\/10\/over-800000-brazilians-sign-pro-democracy-manifesto-amid-bolsonaro-coup-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 800,000 Brazilians Sign Pro-Democracy Manifesto Amid Bolsonaro Coup Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Brazil<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Members of opposition parties and social movements protest against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling on unemployment and hike fuel prices in downtown S\u00e3o Paulo on April 9, 2022. (Photo: Cris Faga\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We face the risk of having to live through a dictatorship once again\u2014and this is inconceivable,” one of the proclamation’s authors warned.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a> August 9, 2022 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 800,000 Brazilians<\/strong> have signed a pro-democracy manifesto<\/a> ahead of nationwide demonstrations this Thursday and amid growing fears that right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro\u2014who is trailing by double-digits in recent polling\u2014may attempt a coup if he is not reelected in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is nothing more important than defending democracy and elections.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proclamation<\/a>, published by the University of S\u00e3o Paulo School of Law, asserts that “the solution to the immense challenges facing Brazilian society necessarily involves respect for the results of the elections. In civic vigil against attempts at ruptures, we cry out in unison: Democratic rule of law, always!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter, which never mentions Bolsonaro by name, is set to be read on Thursday\u2014National Student’s Day\u2014at what’s being billed as a national mobilization across Brazil in defense of democracy and free elections and against cuts in education spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Groups including Unified Workers’ Central (CUT), the country’s main national trade union center, plan to hit the streets in at least 21 of Brazil’s 26 state capitals, as well as in the national capital Bras\u00edlia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is nothing more important than defending democracy and elections,” CUT president S\u00e9rgio Nobre told<\/a> Reconta A\u00ed<\/em>. “CUT will support all initiatives, manifestos, and actions taken in defense of democracy, the electoral system, and electronic voting machines.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/taliriapetrone\/status\/1555237253651349505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1555237253651349505%7Ctwgr%5E61f5854b40c054beebcfd78483ac8e85ca1f1a78%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2022%2F08%2F09%2Fover-800000-brazilians-sign-pro-democracy-manifesto-amid-bolsonaro-coup-threat<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro has often cast baseless aspersions<\/a> upon Brazil’s electronic voting system, which has been in use since 1996 without evidence of irregularities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva\u2014a member of the leftist Workers’ Party\u2014leads Bolsonaro by 10 points in aggregate polling<\/a> for the first round contest, which will take place on October 2. Da Silva’s aggregate lead rises to a formidable 17 points in runoff round surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy defenders fear that Bolsonaro and his running mate, former Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto, will be true to their threats<\/a> to reject the results of the election if they lose under the current electronic voting system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are going through a moment of immense danger to democratic normality, of risk to the institutions of the republic, and of insinuations of contempt for the results of the elections,” the new manifesto warns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The publication continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Groundless attacks unaccompanied by evidence question the fairness of the electoral process and the democratic rule of law so hard won by Brazilian society. Threats to other powers and sectors of civil society and the incitement to violence and the breakdown of the constitutional order are intolerable.<\/p>

We have recently witnessed authoritarian rants that have jeopardized secular American democracy. There, attempts to destabilize democracy and the people’s confidence in the fairness of the elections were unsuccessful. Here, they won’t be either.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

“Imbued with the civic spirit that underpinned the 1977 Letter to Brazilians… we call on Brazilians to be alert in the defense of democracy and respect for the election result,” the document’s authors implore. “In today’s Brazil there is no more room for authoritarian setbacks. Dictatorship and torture belong to the past.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have recently witnessed authoritarian rants that have jeopardized secular American democracy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazilian lawyer and former Justice Minister Jos\u00e9 Carlos Dias helped write both the new manifesto and the 1977 Letter to Brazilians, a denunciation of the U.S.-backed military dictatorship that had ruled the country since seizing power in a 1964 coup supported<\/a> by the CIA and the administration of then-President Lyndon B. Johnson, who ordered<\/a> a naval task force to Brazil for possible intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dictatorship\u2014during which Bolsonaro, an army paratrooper, rose through the ranks\u2014ruled through state terror and torture, which was taught<\/a> by U.S. agents using political prisoners as test subjects. Victims included future leftist President Dilma Rousseff, whose torturer, as well as the dictatorship itself, have been praised<\/a> by Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as the 1977 letter added fuel to the flames of resistance that eventually brought down the dictatorship and ushered in a transition to democracy, Dias believes the new manifesto can make a difference today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Em 8 de agosto de 1977, Goffredo da Silva Telles J\u00fanior leu na Faculdade de Direito da USP, Largo S\u00e3o Francisco, a "Carta aos Brasileiros". Foto do @heliocamposmello. Nesta quinta-feira, dia 11 de agosto de 2022, a sociedade civil vai se reunir de novo para defender a democracia. pic.twitter.com\/smSKbalvQa<\/a><\/p>— Patricia Campos Mello (@camposmello) August 8, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>