In Brazil there are neither OrdemNor progress. The positivist motto that stands out on the flag of the South American giant, which makes stability and progress the two tracks on which the nation should move, has never been so far from the political, economic and social reality of Brazil. The stabbing of Jair Bolsonaro, candidate of the Social Liberal Party and leader of the right at elections presidential in October, during a rally in the State of Minas Gerais - the first episode of this kind in democratic Brazil -, he plunged the country further into chaos.
Brazil, after the dreams of glory in the early XNUMXs, quickly withdrew into itself. The problems are many: low economic growth, corruption rampant, riots on the agenda – from truckers enraged by the rise in the cost of petrol in mid-August to the now cyclical riots in Rio de Janeiro – and, recently, the question of Venezuelan migrants, massing along the northern border, fleeing the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.
The attack on Bolsonaro is another significant vulnus for the already weak Brazilian democracy. Currently, the election campaign for the first round of the 7 October it will not have among the active participants neither Bolsonaro, still in the hospital (but his organizational machine will not stop), nor the former president Squid. Historian candidate Workers Party, in fact, he is serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption and money laundering and his appeal to the Federal Court was recently rejected. Together, Bolsonaro and Lula account for at least half of voter preferences, according to the most recent polls. A potentially explosive scenario which, according to the most recent developments, seems to have convinced the ruling class and voters that there is only one way out: the return of the military.
Military in the street, military in the building
Hover a certain nostalgia in Brazil. A sizable chunk of the electorate has already sided with the reserve captain of theExército brasileiroJair Bolsonaro. These, together with his designated deputy, General Antonio Hamilton Murão, embodies the nostalgia all Brazilian for that "golden age" which, between 1964 and 1985, gave full powers to the high hierarchies of the army. And Bolsonaro himself found himself defending those soldiers, as well as praising the Latin American authoritarian regimes of Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Alberto Fujimori in Peru. Stability, security and economic growth: three words that embody the Brazilian national motto and that have distinguished – at least in words – the work of the army in government.
Especially with regard to theOrdem. President Michel Temer, precisely on the occasion of the strike by road hauliers which paralyzed the country for days, had to deny any possible intervention by the military, hypothesized by many (and - perhaps - hoped for) as a definitive solution. There was no intervention, but the army, in some areas, is de facto already in command.
Since last February, officially to counter the drug trafficking, there are about 170 soldiers employed in the State of Rio de Janeiro, where General Walter Braga Netto has hand free regarding the management of the police service and the fight against crime. The goal is to bring about a pacification of the most problematic neighborhoods. The balance, however, is worthy of a war report: in just under nine months, there were more than three thousand homicides, of which nearly nine hundred were caused by the soldiers themselves.
The consequences of the Venezuelan crisis
The military, however, are not engaged only in the heart of the country. A few days ago, hundreds of Brazilian soldiers were deployed in the state of Roráima, on the border with the Venezuela. The political and economic difficulties of Caracas, which are taking on the characteristics of a real humanitarian crisis from week to week, have been reverberating throughout the continent for some time. In particular in Brazil: since 2015, more than 50 Venezuelan citizens have applied for political asylum.
Temer's response, which sent the military to the border, immediately found support in Bolsonaro and his supporters. The right-wing candidate has repeatedly expressed his desire and promise to close the northern border. An idea that instantly garnered the consent of most of the inhabitants of Pacaraima, a town in Roráima that is most subjected to migratory pressure. And not only that: Bolsonaro has also proposed the creation of camps for refugees.
The country facing the democratic challenge
It's a kind of National security 2.0, which legitimizes the re-proposition of formulas that seemed outdated after decades. The doctrine that had made the military coup of 1964 "necessary" and corroborated the action of the junta during the twenty years of power (re)found, for a few months now, new lifeblood. The army has a duty to ensure stability in a country in the throes of Chaos and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, to revive the national economy and to fight the "internal enemy", which from time to time takes the form of drug trafficking, corrupt politicians, migrants, and so on.
Without a doubt, whoever succeeds Temer will have to firmly reaffirm the control and supremacy of civilian over military power. Also for this reason, next month's elections will be a real litmus test on the state of health of the young Brazilian democracy.
