January 9, 2023

By Chuck Ardo

The Washington Post’s headline, “Trump aides Bannon, Miller advising the Bolsonaros on next steps”, should have served as ample warning that a violent insurrection was imminent.  Right wing nationalist Jair Bolsonaro lost the Brazilian presidential election to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula but former Trump advisor Steve Bannon urged him to contest the results. Much to Bannon’s delight, Bolsonaro has refused to concede his defeat. So, the storming of Brazil’s government building by Bolsonaro supporters was predictable.

“Bolsonaro has been nicknamed ‘Trump of the Tropics’. The men share hardline views on crime, immigration and gun control laws, and have both launched attacks on the media and publicly shared claims that their enemies plan to oust them, against ‘the will of the people’, openDemocracy reported.. “Trump effusively backed Bolsonaro’s re-election bid. ‘He is a wonderful man, and has my Complete & Total Endorsement!!!,’”Trump posted on Truth Social.” The Post reported that “Trump’s advisers were drawn to Bolsonaro’s love of guns, his nationalism, his willingness to antagonize Brazil’s long-standing allies and slash environmental regulations, and his embrace of culture wars.”  He was one of them!

Bannon had for weeks been using his podcast spread baseless rumors about election fraud and allegations of a "stolen election", much like those he spread about Donald Trump’s loss.  He was joined by Matthew Tyrmand, a board member for Project Veritas and Darren Beattie, a former Trump speechwriter who was fired for meeting with white nationalist, to spread their doubts over Lula’s win. Based on the fact that early results showed that Bolsonaro held a lead before ballots from Lula’s stronghold, were counted Tyrmand claimed “There was fraud there’ while Bannon claimed  Bolsonaro’s defeat was “mathematically impossible.”

However, the US State Department considers Brazil’s electronic voting system, which has never registered a single instance of fraud since its introduction in 1996, “a model for the (Western) hemisphere countries and the world”. Electoral observation missions from the Organization of American States, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, and the US Carter Center found that the vote was democratic and held transparently and peacefully..

When Jair Bolsonaro reinstated commemorations of a brutal American backed military dictatorship that unleashed an era of repression in Brazil he sent a signal to his most extreme right wing supporters. Like many politically conservative Brazilians, he often waxed nostalgic for the military dictatorship. And although he denied responsibility for the ransacking of Brazil’s Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court he couldn’t have been surprised by it. Bolsonaro had to be fully aware that Bannon “likely had an important role” in formulating the plan for the January 6th insurrection in Washington and bringing him in as an advisor was likely to have the same insurrection attempt outcome.