The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 13th January 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 13th January 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
NEW Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vowed to punish the ringleaders who plunged the capital into chaos last weekend. The right-wing extremists took advantage of the fact that Lula was far away in the São Paulo region inspecting areas damaged by the recent heavy rains to launch a Trump-style rampage through Brasilia in an attempt to provoke the army into seizing power and removing Lula’s left-social democratic government. But the generals sat on their hands, mindful of the fact that Trump is a spent force and that his successor, Joe Biden, is no friend of Bolsonaro, the man some called the “Trump of South America”.
Thousands of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro swarmed over government buildings in Brasilia on Sunday claiming that last October’s election was rigged and demanding the ousting of Lula.
Bolsonaro has never publicly conceded defeat and, like Trump, claims without evidence that the country’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to tampering.
President Lula, who was inaugurated the week before, ordered the police and security forces to disperse the mob of “fascist fanatics” that he said had been incited to violence by Bolsonaro, who had conveniently gone to Florida to avoid taking part in the inauguration of his left-wing rival.
Over 1,500 people have been detained since the assault on the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace by the Bolsonaristas in the capital Brasília on Sunday.
The president of Brazil’s supreme court, Alexandre de Moraes, has ordered the arrest of Anderson Torres, the former justice minister under Bolsonaro and, until Sunday, head of security forces in Brasilia. Torres was fired from his Brasilia post after the riots and it is understood that he too has recently left the country and is now believed to be in the USA. But for how long remains to be seen.
Bolsonaro was a rabid Trump man, which won him no favours with the US Democrats. Now Joe Biden tells reporters that the Brazilian riots were “outrageous” and invites Lula to the White House whilst other Democrat politicians are calling for Bolsonaro to be immediately kicked out of the USA.
“Domestic terrorists and fascists cannot be allowed to use Trump’s play-book to undermine democracy. Bolsonaro must not be given refuge in Florida, where he’s been hiding from accountability for his crimes,” says Texan Democrat Joaquin Castro.
Lula, a member of the Workers’ Party, is the first Brazilian president to have been elected to a third term and the first to have defeated an incumbent president in an election.
At the age of 77, he is the oldest Brazilian president at the time of inauguration. His platform is supported by the Brazilian communists (PCdoB), who have six seats in the Chamber of Deputies, the Brazilian parliament.
PCdoB leader Luciana Santos, who is a minister in the Lula government, has called for the “strict punishment” of those responsible for the violence last weekend. The Brazilian people demand strict punishment of those involved in these acts together with those who organised and funded their actions, she said. “Fascism and its terrorists will not stop the strength of the people and the return of hope for the reconstruction of Brazil.”