{"id":216398,"date":"2022-07-11T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=216398"},"modified":"2022-07-10T05:24:37","modified_gmt":"2022-07-10T04:24:37","slug":"why-brazil-still-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/07\/why-brazil-still-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Brazil Still Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

With Lula eligible to run against Bolsonaro, Brazilians hold the world\u2019s future in their hands.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Operation Car Wash put former president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva (top) out of contention in 2018, clearing the way for Jair Bolsonaro.<\/p><\/div>\n

While many in the West lamented Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s stunning ascension to the presidency of the world\u2019s fifth most populous country in 2018, the election outcome was sealed roughly a year earlier. That was when Brazil\u2019s two-term center-left president, Lula da Silva, who had been legally barred from a third consecutive term in 2010 despite an 86 percent approval rating<\/a>\u2014and who was leading in all the polls for a comeback in the 2018 presidential race\u2014was convicted on dubious corruption charges<\/a> and then declared ineligible to run. With his primary obstacle out of the way, Bolsonaro cruised to victory.<\/p>\n

The stench of those events intensified greatly when Bolsonaro appointed the judge who\u2019d found Lula guilty, Sergio Moro, to the newly enhanced<\/a> position of minister of justice and public security. Even Moro\u2019s closest allies in the sprawling anti-corruption probe known as Operation Car Wash<\/a> (Lava Jato<\/em> in Portuguese) were outraged by this blatant quid pro quo, which they realized would forever tarnish their legacy.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s victory\u2014propelled in large part by widespread anger toward the ruling class and its neoliberal ideology, as well as the multiple crises plaguing the country\u2014was a major blow to progressive hopes across Latin America. Brazil had been a leader in democratizing the region since 1985, when popular protests forced the country\u2019s military rulers\u2014who had savagely wielded power following a 1964 coup in which the generals deposed a democratically elected president\u2014to return to civilian rule. Ever since, it has been not just taboo but illegal for anyone to praise the dictatorship, which exiled, tortured, imprisoned, and killed<\/a> thousands of artists, dissidents, journalists, and activists.<\/p>\n

But during the 28 years that he was a member of Congress from Rio de Janeiro, Bolsonaro\u2014who\u2019d served as an army captain during the dictatorship\u2014defied that taboo with abandon. He has always maintained that military rule was a superior form of government<\/a> to democracy, urged the return of the most repressive military decrees, criticized Brazil\u2019s military rulers for not killing enough people, and vowed that he would close the country\u2019s Congress if he were president.<\/p>\n

In May 2019, I was contacted by an anonymous source who told me he had hacked into the phone data and chat logs of Brazil\u2019s most powerful officials, including Judge Moro and the lead prosecutors who imprisoned Lula. Our reporting, beginning with a series of expos\u00e9s<\/a> in The Intercept<\/em> in June 2019, proved that there was widespread corruption among the Car Wash leaders. Our revelations paved the way for the release<\/a> of Lula from prison in November 2019 and, on March 8 of this year, the nullification<\/a> of Lula\u2019s convictions. As a result, Lula\u2019s political rights have been restored, meaning he will almost certainly be eligible to challenge Bolsonaro in 2022. That showdown has enormous consequences, not just for Brazil or Latin America but for the future of the entire planet.<\/p>\n

I<\/span>t\u2019s not just that Brazil has oil. The country\u2019s massive oil reserves, including much of the planet\u2019s so-called pre-salt reserves, are of particular geostrategic and environmental importance. \u201cPre-salt\u201d is a geological designation for oil that is extremely old and thus buried far deeper in the earth than standard petroleum, usually under a layer of salt. That makes its extraction more difficult and expensive, but it also provides far more potential in terms of volume than most of the world\u2019s remaining reserves. Brazil\u2019s Petrobras discovered the massive pre-salt reserves in 2006<\/a>, but it is still unknown just how large they are. What is beyond doubt is that the oil is of immense value to a world still dependent on fossil fuels yet whose reserves are dwindling.<\/p>\n

Beyond the sprawling, untapped pre-salt petroleum, Brazil controls the vast majority of the environmental asset scientists around the world agree is the single most important natural resource, by far, in averting catastrophic climate change: the Amazon rain forest. The Amazon\u2019s primary value lies in its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide. As a comprehensive Associated Press article<\/a> about the region explained, \u201cCurrently, the world is emitting around 40 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. The Amazon absorbs 2 billion tons of CO2 per year (or 5% of annual emissions), making it a vital part of preventing climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The context for that AP article\u2014and thousands more like it from around the world\u2014was that in mid-2019, the world looked on in horror as the Brazilian Amazon burned. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke for much of the world when he posted the following tweet<\/a>: \u201cOur house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest\u2014the lungs which produces 20% of our planet\u2019s oxygen\u2014is on fire. It is an international crisis. Members of the G7 summit, let\u2019s discuss this emergency first order in two days! #ActForTheAmazon.\u201d<\/p>\n