{"id":70955,"date":"2016-03-21T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=70955"},"modified":"2016-03-21T12:32:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T12:32:52","slug":"brazil-is-engulfed-by-ruling-class-corruption-and-a-dangerous-subversion-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/03\/brazil-is-engulfed-by-ruling-class-corruption-and-a-dangerous-subversion-of-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Is Engulfed by Ruling Class Corruption \u2014 and a Dangerous Subversion of Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0(Para ler a vers\u00e3o desse artigo em Portugu\u00eas,\u00a0clique aqui<\/u>.<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Caption:<\/a>

Caption: Agencia Estado via AP Images<\/p><\/div>\n

18 Mar 2016 – <\/em>The multiple, remarkable crises consuming Brazil\u00a0are now\u00a0garnering substantial Western media attention<\/a>. That\u2019s understandable given that Brazil\u00a0is the world\u2019s fifth\u00a0most populous country and eighth-largest economy; its second-largest city, Rio de Janeiro,\u00a0is the host of this year\u2019s Summer Olympics. But much of this Western media coverage<\/a> mimics the propaganda coming from Brazil\u2019s homogenized, oligarch-owned, anti-democracy media outlets and, as such, is\u00a0misleading, inaccurate, and incomplete, particularly when coming from those with little familiarity\u00a0with\u00a0the country (there are numerous Brazil-based Western<\/a> reporters<\/a> doing outstanding\u00a0work<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It is difficult to overstate the severity of Brazil\u2019s multi-level distress. This short paragraph yesterday from the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u2019s Brazil bureau chief, Simon Romero,\u00a0conveys<\/a> how dire it is:<\/p>\n

Brazil<\/a> is suffering its worst economic crisis in decades<\/a>. An enormous graft scheme<\/a> has hobbled the national oil company. The Zika <\/a>epidemic<\/a> is causing despair across the northeast<\/a>. And just before the world heads to Brazil for the Summer Olympics<\/a>, the government is fighting for survival, with almost every corner of the political system under the cloud of scandal.<\/em><\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s\u00a0extraordinary political upheaval\u00a0shares some similarities with the Trump-led political chaos in the U.S.: a sui generis, out-of-control\u00a0<\/em>circus unleashing instability and some rather dark forces, with a positive ending almost impossible to imagine.\u00a0The once-remote prospect of President Dilma Rousseff\u2019s impeachment now seems likely.<\/p>\n

But one significant difference with the U.S. is that Brazil\u2019s turmoil is not confined to one politician. The opposite is true, as Romero notes: \u201calmost every corner of the political system [is] under the cloud of scandal.\u201d That includes not only Rousseff\u2019s moderately left-wing Workers Party, or PT \u2014 which is rife with serious corruption \u2014\u00a0but also the vast majority of the centrist and right-wing political and economic factions working to destroy PT, which are drowning in at least an equal\u00a0amount of criminality. In other words, PT is indeed deeply corrupt and awash in criminal scandal, but so is virtually every\u00a0political faction\u00a0working to undermine it and vying to seize that party\u2019s democratically obtained power.<\/p>\n

In reporting on Brazil, Western media outlets have most prominently focused on the increasingly large street protests demanding the impeachment of Rousseff. They have typically depicted those protests in idealized, cartoon terms of adoration: as an\u00a0inspiring, mass populist uprising against a corrupt regime. Last night, NBC News\u2019s Chuck Todd re-tweeted the Eurasia Group\u2019s\u00a0Ian Bremmer describing<\/a>\u00a0anti-Dilma protests as \u201cThe People vs. the President\u201d \u2014 a manufactured theme consistent with what is being peddled by Brazil\u2019s anti-government media outlets such as Globo:<\/p>\n

\"Caption:<\/a><\/p>\n

That narrative is, at best, a radical oversimplification of what is happening and, more often, crass propaganda designed to undermine a left-wing party\u00a0long disliked<\/a> by U.S. foreign policy elites<\/a>. That depiction completely ignores the historical\u00a0context of Brazil\u2019s politics and, more importantly, several\u00a0critical questions: Who is behind these protests, how representative are the\u00a0protesters\u00a0of the Brazilian population, and what is their actual agenda?<\/p>\n

The current version of Brazilian\u00a0democracy\u00a0is very young. In 1964, the country\u2019s\u00a0democratically elected left-wing government was overthrown by a military coup. Both publicly and before Congress, U.S. officials vehemently denied any role, but \u2014 needless to say \u2014 documents and recordings<\/a> subsequently emerged<\/a> proving the U.S. directly supported and helped plot\u00a0critical aspects of that coup.<\/p>\n

The 21-year, right-wing, pro-U.S. military dictatorship that ensued was brutal and tyrannical, specializing in torture techniques used against dissidents that were taught to the dictatorship\u00a0by the U.S. and U.K. A comprehensive 2014 Truth Commission report documented<\/a> that both countries \u201ctrained Brazilian interrogators in torture techniques.\u201d Among their\u00a0victims was Rousseff, who was an anti-regime, left-wing guerilla\u00a0imprisoned and tortured by the military dictators\u00a0in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

The coup itself and the dictatorship that followed were supported by Brazil\u2019s oligarchs and their large media outlets<\/a>, led by Globo, which \u2014 notably \u2014 depicted the 1964 coup as a noble defeat of a corrupt left-wing government (sound familiar?). The 1964 coup and dictatorship were also supported\u00a0by\u00a0the nation\u2019s extravagantly rich (and overwhelmingly white)\u00a0upper class and its small middle class. As democracy opponents often do, Brazil\u2019s wealthy factions regarded\u00a0dictatorship as protection against the impoverished\u00a0masses comprised largely of non-whites. As\u00a0The Guardian<\/em> put it<\/a> upon release of the Truth Commission report: \u201cAs was the case elsewhere in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s, the elite and middle class aligned themselves with the military to stave off what they saw as a communist threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"brasil<\/a><\/p>\n

These severe class and race divisions<\/a> in Brazil remain the dominant dynamic. As the BBC put it<\/a> in 2014 based on multiple studies<\/a>: \u201cBrazil has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the world.\u201d The Americas Quarterly<\/em>\u00a0editor-in-chief, Brian Winter, reporting on the protests,\u00a0wrote this week<\/a>: \u201cThe gap between rich and poor remains the central fact of Brazilian life \u2014 and these protests are no different.\u201d If you want to understand anything about the current political crisis in Brazil, it\u2019s crucial to understand what Winter\u00a0means by that.<\/p>\n

Dilma\u2019s party, PT, was formed in 1980 as a classic Latin American left-wing socialist party. To improve its national appeal, it moderated its\u00a0socialist dogma and gradually became a party more akin to Europe\u2019s social democrats. There are now popular parties to its left<\/a>;\u00a0indeed, Dilma, voluntarily or otherwise, has advocated\u00a0austerity measures<\/a> to cure economic ills and assuage\u00a0foreign markets<\/a>, and just this week enacted a draconian \u201canti-terrorism\u201d law<\/a>. Still, PT resides on the center-left wing of Brazil\u2019s spectrum and\u00a0its supporters are overwhelmingly Brazil\u2019s\u00a0poor and racial minorities. In power, PT\u00a0has ushered in a series of economic and social reforms<\/a> that have provided substantial government benefits and opportunities, which have lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty.<\/p>\n

PT has held the presidency for 14\u00a0years: since 2002. Its popularity has been\u00a0the byproduct of Dilma\u2019s wildly charismatic predecessor, Lu\u00edz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva (universally referred to as Lula). Lula\u2019s ascendency was a potent symbol of the empowerment of Brazil\u2019s poor under democracy: a laborer and union leader from a very poor family who dropped out of school in the second grade, did not read until the age of 10, and\u00a0was imprisoned by the dictatorship for union activities. He has long been mocked by Brazilian elites in starkly classist tones for his working-class accent and manner of speaking.<\/p>\n

\"Lula<\/a>

Lula and Dilma campaign together in the 2010 election.
Photo: Eraldo Peres\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

After three unsuccessful runs for the presidency,\u00a0Lula proved to be an unstoppable political force. Elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, he left office with such high approval ratings<\/a> that he was able to ensure the election of his previously unknown hand-picked successor, Dilma, who was then re-elected in 2014. It has long been assumed\u00a0that Lula \u2014 who vocally opposes<\/a> austerity measures \u2014\u00a0intends to run again for president in 2018 after completion of\u00a0Dilma\u2019s second term, and anti-PT forces are petrified that he\u2019d again beat them at the ballot box.<\/p>\n

Though the nation\u2019s oligarchical\u00a0class has successfully used the center-right\u00a0PSDB as a counterweight, it has been largely impotent in defeating PT in four consecutive presidential elections. Voting is\u00a0compulsory, and the nation\u2019s poor citizens have\u00a0ensured PT\u2019s victories.<\/p>\n

Corruption among\u00a0Brazil\u2019s political class \u2014 including the top levels of\u00a0the PT \u2014 is real and substantial. But Brazil\u2019s plutocrats, their media, and the upper and middle classes are glaringly\u00a0exploiting this corruption scandal to achieve what they have failed for years to accomplish democratically: the removal of PT from power.<\/p>\n

Contrary to Chuck Todd\u2019s and Ian Bremmer\u2019s romanticized, misinformed (at best) depiction of these protests as being carried out by \u201cThe People,\u201d they are, in fact,\u00a0incited by the country\u2019s intensely concentrated, homogenized, and powerful corporate media outlets, and are composed (not exclusively but overwhelmingly) of the nation\u2019s wealthier, white citizens who have long harbored animosity toward PT and anything that smacks\u00a0of anti-poverty programs.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s corporate media outlets are acting as de facto protest organizers and PR arms of opposition parties. The Twitter feeds of some of Globo\u2019s most influential (and very rich) on-air reporters<\/a>\u00a0contain non-stop\u00a0anti-PT agitation. When a recording of a telephone conversation between Dilma and Lula was leaked\u00a0this week,\u00a0Globo\u2019s highly\u00a0influential nightly news program, Jornal Nacional<\/em>, had its anchors flamboyantly re-enact the dialogue in such a melodramatic and provocatively gossipy fashion<\/a> that it literally resembled a soap opera far more than a news report, prompting widespread ridicule<\/a>. For months, Brazil\u2019s top four newsmagazines have devoted cover after cover to inflammatory\u00a0attacks on Dilma and Lula, usually featuring ominous photos of one or the other and always with a strikingly unified narrative.<\/p>\n

To provide some perspective for how central the large corporate media has been in inciting these protests: Recall the key role Fox News played in promoting and encouraging attendance<\/a> at the early Tea Party protests<\/a>. Now imagine what those protests would have been if it had not been just Fox, but also ABC, NBC, CBS, Time<\/em> magazine, the New York Times<\/em>, and the Huffington Post<\/em>\u00a0also supporting and inciting the Tea Party rallies. That<\/em>\u00a0is what has been happening in Brazil: The largest outlets are owned and controlled by a tiny number of plutocratic families, virtually all of whom are vehement, class-based opponents of PT and whose media outlets have unified to fuel these protests.<\/p>\n

In sum,\u00a0the business interests owned and represented by those media outlets are almost uniformly pro-impeachment and were linked to the military dictatorship.\u00a0As Stephanie Nolen, the Rio-based reporter for Canada\u2019s\u00a0Globe and Mail<\/em>, noted:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIt is clear that most of the country\u2019s institutions are lined up against the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Put simply,\u00a0this is a campaign to subvert Brazil\u2019s democratic outcomes by monied factions that have long hated the results of democratic elections, deceitfully marching under an anti-corruption\u00a0banner: quite similar to the 1964 coup. Indeed, much of the Brazilian right longs for restoration of the military dictatorship, and factions at these \u201canti-corruption\u201d protests have been openly calling for the end of democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

None of this\u00a0is\u00a0a defense of PT. Both because of genuine widespread corruption in that party and\u00a0national\u00a0economic woes, Dilma and PT are intensely unpopular<\/a> among all classes and groups, even including\u00a0the party\u2019s\u00a0working-class base. But the street protests \u2014 as undeniably\u00a0large and energized as they have been \u2014 are\u00a0driven by those who are traditionally hostile to PT. The number of people participating in these protests \u2014 while in the millions \u2014 is dwarfed by the number (54 million) who voted to re-elect Dilma less than two years ago. In a democracy, governments are chosen by voting, not by displays of street opposition \u2014 particularly where, as in Brazil, the protests are drawn from a relatively narrow societal segment.<\/p>\n

As Winter reported: \u201cLast Sunday, when more than 1\u00a0million people took to the streets, polls indicated<\/a> that once again the crowd was significantly richer, whiter, and more educated than Brazilians at large.\u201d Nolen similarly reported: \u201cThe half-dozen large anti-corruption demonstrations in the past year have been dominated by white and upper-middle-class protesters, who tend to be supporters of the opposition Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), and to have little love for Ms. Rousseff\u2019s left-leaning Workers\u2019 Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last weekend, when massive anti-Dilma protests emerged in most Brazilian cities, a photograph of one of the families participating went viral, a symbol of what these protests actually are. It showed a rich, white couple\u00a0decked out in anti-Dilma symbols and walking with their pure-breed dog, trailed by their\u00a0black \u201cweekend nanny\u201d \u2014 wearing the all-white uniform many rich Brazilians require their domestic servants to wear \u2014 pushing a stroller with their two children.<\/p>\n

As Nolen noted<\/a>, the photo became the emblem for the true, highly ideological essence of these protests: \u201cBrazilians, who are deft and fast with memes, reposted the picture with a thousand snarky captions, such as \u2018Speed it up, there, Maria [the generic \u2018maid name\u2019], we have to get out to protest against this government that made us pay you minimum wage.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To believe that the influential figures\u00a0agitating for Dilma\u2019s impeachment are motivated by an authentic anti-corruption crusade requires extreme na\u00efvet\u00e9 or willful ignorance. To begin with, the factions that would be empowered by Dilma\u2019s impeachment are\u00a0at least<\/em> as implicated\u00a0by corruption scandals as she is: in most cases, more so.<\/p>\n

Five of the members of the impeachment comm.<\/p>\n

ission are themselves being criminally investigated<\/a> as part of the corruption scandal. That includes\u00a0Paulo Maluf, who faces an\u00a0Interpol warrant<\/a> for his arrest and has not been able to leave the country for years; he has been\u00a0sentenced in France to three years in prison for money laundering. Of the 65 members of the House impeachment committee, 36 currently face<\/a>\u00a0pending legal proceedings.<\/p>\n

In the lower house of Congress, the leader of the impeachment movement, the evangelical extremist Eduardo Cunha, was found to have maintained<\/a> multiple secret Swiss bank accounts, where he stored millions of dollars that\u00a0prosecutors believe were received as bribes. He is the target of multiple active criminal investigations.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Senator A\u00e9cio Neves, the leader of the Brazilian opposition who Dilma narrowly defeated in the 2014 election, has himself been implicated at least five separate times<\/a> in the corruption scandal. One of the prosecutors\u2019 newest star witnesses just accused him<\/a> of accepting bribes. That witness also implicated<\/a> the country\u2019s vice president,\u00a0Michel Temer, of the opposition party PMDB, who would replace Dilma if she were impeached.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the recent behavior of the chief judge who has been overseeing the corruption investigation and has become a folk hero<\/a> for his commendably aggressive investigations of some of the country\u2019s richest and most powerful figures. That judge, Sergio Moro, this week effectively leaked to the media a tape-recorded, extremely vague conversation between Dilma and Lula, which Globo and other anti-PT forces immediately depicted as incriminating. Moro disclosed the recording of the conversation within hours<\/em> of its taking place.<\/p>\n

But the recorded conversation was released\u00a0by Judge Moro with no due process and, worse, with clearly political, not judicial, purposes: Namely, he was furious that his investigation of Lula would be terminated by his appointment to Dilma\u2019s cabinet (high officials can be investigated only by the Supreme Court).\u00a0His leak\u00a0sought to embarrass Dilma and Lula and trigger street protests, and thus provoked criticisms, even among his previous fans<\/a>, that he was now abusing his power<\/a> by\u00a0becoming a political actor.\u00a0Worse, the recording itself seems to have been illegally obtained<\/a>\u00a0since it was made after the expiration<\/a> of Judge Moro\u2019s warrant. The head of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s bar association, Felipe Santa Cruz, called<\/a> Moro\u2019s actions a \u201cnauseating embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this raises the very clear danger that the criminal investigation and impeachment\u00a0process are\u00a0not a legal exercise to punish criminal leaders, but rather an anti-democratic political weapon wielded by political opponents to remove a democratically elected president. That danger was even more starkly highlighted yesterday when it was revealed<\/a> that a judge who issued an order blocking Lula\u2019s cabinet appointment by Dilma had days earlier\u00a0posted to his Facebook page<\/a> numerous\u00a0selfies of him marching in the anti-government protest over the weekend. As Winter wrote, \u201cConvincing the public that the Brazilian judiciary is \u2018at war\u2019 with the Workers\u2019 Party will be an easier task than it was two weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no question that PT is rife with corruption. There are serious questions surrounding Lula that deserve an impartial and fair investigation. And\u00a0impeachment is a legitimate process in a democracy provided that the targeted\u00a0official is actually guilty of serious crimes and the law is scrupulously followed in how the impeachment\u00a0is effectuated.<\/p>\n

But the picture currently emerging in Brazil surrounding impeachment and these street protests is far more complicated, and far more ethically ambiguous, than has frequently been depicted. The effort to remove Dilma and her party from power now resembles a nakedly anti-democratic power struggle more\u00a0than a legally sound\u00a0process or\u00a0genuine anti-corruption movement. Worse,\u00a0it\u2019s being incited, engineered, and fueled by the very factions who are themselves knee-deep in corruption scandals, and who\u00a0represent the interests of the richest and most powerful societal segments\u00a0long angry at their inability to defeat PT democratically.<\/p>\n

In other words, it all seems historically familiar, particular for Latin America, where democratically elected left-wing governments have been repeatedly removed by non-democratic, extra-legal means. In many ways, PT and Dilma are not sympathetic victims. Large segments of the population are genuinely angry at them for plainly legitimate reasons. But their sins do not justify the sins of their long-standing political enemies, and most certainly do not render subversion of Brazilian democracy something to cheer.<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

Glenn Greenwald<\/a> –\u2709glenn.greenwald@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Andrew Fishman<\/a> – \u2709fishman@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

David Miranda<\/a> –\u2709amd4411@\u200bhotmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Additional reporting: Cec\u00edlia Olliveira<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Western media are depicting street protests as a noble populist uprising. The facts are much more complicated. It all seems historically familiar, particular for Latin America, where democratically elected left-wing governments have been repeatedly removed by non-democratic, extra-legal means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}