Pro-Bolsonaro protesters making baseless claims of election fraud have blocked roads and highways across the country since Sunday night, causing chaos, flight cancellations and fears of fuel shortages. On Tuesday morning, Brazil’s highest court ruled that the federal highway police must take immediate action to clear the roads. The videos showed some police officers encouraging the protests. As of Wednesday morning, highway police said they had cleared more than 600 roadblocks, while 156 roadblocks remained on federal highways across the country. But where security forces failed to break up the barricades, football fans took matters into their own hands. According to O Globo newspaper, at least four soccer ultras associations – known in Brazil as torcidas organizadas – broke through Bolsonarista roadblocks in the states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná in their bid to reach the Brasileirão matches, the main event of its soccer league. Brazil. . Members of Atlético Mineiro club’s Galoucura football fans’ association cleaned the road connecting Belo Horizonte to São Paulo ahead of a match on Tuesday between the Minas Gerais club, known as Galo, and the São Paulo soccer team. Videos circulating online show soccer fans clearing tires from the road and trucks driving away. “The army that destroys the barricades is here,” says one man. “We’ll see Galo no matter what!” On social media, amused Brazilians thanked the ultras for defending democracy. “I’m in favor of my team defeating Galo today simply because of Galoucura’s contribution [democratic] institutions,” tweeted Vera Magalhães, a pro-São Paulo journalist who has often been harassed by President Bolsonaro and his supporters. The game ended in a 2-2 draw. Meanwhile, Gaviões do Fiel fans of Sao Paulo’s Corinthians team cleared two roadblocks late on Tuesday as they made their way from Sao Paulo to Rio, where they will play Flamengo at the Maracana Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. After clearing a section of the Marginal Tiête highway in Sao Paulo, Corinthians fans hung a banner reading “We are for democracy” while chanting Lula’s name. Besides President-elect Lula’s team, Corinthians are known for their opposition to Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship with the ‘Democracia Corintiana’ movement led by footballers such as Socrates and Casagrande. Bolsonaro’s hardline supporters protesting the election result are demanding military intervention along the lines of the 1964 military coup. Quick guide
Brazilian dictatorship 1964-1985
projection How did it start? Brazil’s leftist president, João Goulart, was overthrown in a coup in April 1964. General Humberto Castelo Branco became leader, political parties were banned, and the country was plunged into 21 years of military rule. Repression intensified under Castelo Branco’s hard-line heir, Artur da Costa e Silva, who took power in 1967. He was responsible for an infamous decree called AI-5 that gave him broad dictatorial powers and started the so-called ‘anos de chumbo ». ” (years of lead), a grim period of tyranny and violence that would last until 1974. What happened during the dictatorship? Supporters of Brazil’s 1964-1985 military regime – including Jair Bolsonaro – credit him with bringing security and stability to the South American country and masterminding a decade-long economic “miracle”. But the regime, while less notoriously violent than those in Argentina and Chile, was also responsible for murdering or killing hundreds of its opponents and imprisoning thousands more. Among those imprisoned and tortured was Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff, then a leftist rebel. It was also a period of harsh censorship. Some of Brazil’s most beloved musicians – including Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso – were exiled to Europe, writing songs about their forced departures. How did it end? Political exiles began returning to Brazil in 1979 after an amnesty law was passed that began to pave the way for the return of democracy. But the pro-democracy movement “Diretas Já” (Direct elections now!) took its leap only in 1984 with a series of huge and historic street demonstrations in cities such as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte. Political sovereignty returned the following year and a new constitution was introduced in 1988. The following year Brazil held its first direct presidential elections in nearly three decades. Thanks for your response. On Wednesday, thousands of Bolsonaros rallied outside Rio’s eastern military command to express their anger at Bolsonaro’s defeat and demand a military takeover. “Armed Forces, Save Brazil!” some chanted, according to the Associated Press. Bolsonaro, who finally broke his post-election silence with the briefest of speeches on Tuesday afternoon, tacitly supported the protesters’ baseless allegations of fraud. “Today’s popular movements are the fruit of indignation and a sense of injustice about how the electoral process unfolded,” he said, adding that protests cannot prevent people’s right to come and go. Bolsonaro refused to acknowledge Lula’s victory in his speech, let alone congratulate his opponent. But in practice Bolsonaro conceded, ordering his chief of staff to begin the transition process and admitting to the supreme court that the game was up. “It’s over,” he reportedly told the high court justices during a meeting on Tuesday.
