January 8th was contained, not defeated – 01/10/2024 – Conrado Hübner Mendes

There was something cynical and pathetic in the speeches about the first anniversary of the coup attempt on January 8, 2023. The insurmountable pathetic erupted from the mouth of Aldo Rebelo, for whom “attributing a coup attempt to a bunch of troublemakers is a demoralization of the institution of coup d’etat”. The “institution of the coup d’état” really becomes demoralized in the face of such an analyst.

The cynic was present in the rhetorical effort to simulate normality and disguise the institutional inability to hold intellectual and material perpetrators of political violence accountable.

The STF only said that the “court acted quickly and impartially to investigate and hold accountable those who attacked democracy.” Alexandre de Moraes assured that “all those who have proven responsibility, after due legal process, will be held responsible.” Luís Roberto Barroso promised that “we are definitively burying the coup in Brazil”, “to prevent this from happening again”.

Lula stated that “we correctly mapped out who was with whom, who was wanting to launch a coup or not.” Alckmin was more analytical: “It is not possible to punish just those who were inside. (…) It could be civilian, it could be military, public servant, private, it doesn’t matter. The logic of the Republic is that the law is for everyone. In fact , I say more: the greater the responsibility, the authority, the power, the greater the compliance with the law must be.”

The triumphalist and abstract verve of the speeches hides what it wants, and reveals what it doesn’t want: the punishment of powerful people and the prevention of new attempts have not only not started, but also seem to be out of the question. The signs and evidence are diverse.

For example, bricklayer Charles dos Santos and teacher Cibele Matos were sentenced to 16 years in prison, sponsored to visit Brasília and fight for “God above all”, as disinformation networks (the networks and content providers , by the way, are off the list of those punished). Those with boots, money and a strong desire to establish a regime that suppresses rights and freedoms remain unharmed.

The distance between the crimes of Charles and Cibele and the crimes of the basement leaders is immeasurable. The blatant courage to punish Charles and Cybele is directly proportional to the cowardice to punish those in charge.

The spirit in the country’s capital, again, is that of “pacification”. This term, in Brazilian history, is synonymous with complacency, pact of silence, omission and impunity. It is a sneaky way of capitulating and violating constitutional duty. To complete the sleight of hand primer, the resignation is wrapped in a speech of heroism.

The most scandalous “pacification”, despite its historical recurrence, occurs with the Armed Forces. No military personnel were indicted, reported or arrested. All proposals for regulatory reform to democratize and depoliticize the barracks, sown within the government itself, were abandoned. The reopening of the Commission on the Dead and Missing was shelved.

Military personnel were also awarded. Appointments of active military personnel to ministries remain authorized. They took the largest budget from the Growth Acceleration Program (after all, the military and “growth” have a lot in common). Lifetime pensions for military relatives were maintained.

When Lula says that “pardon would sound like impunity”, he was definitely not looking at the greatest coup organizers and executors of the past and present. Generals and financiers continue to sleep peacefully.

Brazil continues to participate in the global phenomenon of autocratization. In the previous four years, the country was one of the leaders in this process. To celebrate, in 2023, only the fact that the 2022 electoral result was respected and the elementary democratic task of replacing the government was accomplished. The country’s institutions remain in need of a diagnosis that measures up to the threat, and of a plan. Surviving matters, but it’s not enough.

LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access five free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.