Lula Voters Nostalgic For Social Gains In Brazil
09/05/22
Public health worker and union leader Aline Xavier, 33, credits Lula with helping her "beat the statistics," get an education and make a career for herself, despite being a black woman from the poor suburbs of Sao Paulo.
The PT "opened the door for me to have a voice... and not be excluded because I was a woman and black," she says.
Xavier, head of a municipal employees' union, believes in "everything Lula does," she says.
A graduate of a public school that opened under the PT, she disdains the Bolsonaro administration for its "neoliberal policies, attacks on workers' rights and intolerance for minorities."
Lula, she hopes, will restore "a government that goes into marginal areas, that gives opportunities to blacks, to working and single moms, that recognizes you can't have meritocracy if you don't have equality."
"Lula is the only one who can get our country back," she says.
09/05/22
Messias Figueiredo, 56, is a well-known figure at left-wing protests -- instantly recognizable with his rectangular glasses and an ever-present red boom box emblazoned with Brazilian former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's picture AFP / Rafael Martins
Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's social programs helped lift tens of millions of people from poverty and chip away at deep-rooted inequality and discrimination in Brazil -- gains supporters hope will now resume.
AFP spoke to Lula voters about the October 2 election pitting the leftist ex-president (2003-2010) against far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
Writer, producer and cultural commentator Jonathan Raymundo, 33, is fed up with Bolsonaro's Brazil.
"I can't take it anymore. Violence against women, blacks and the LGTB+ community has reached alarming levels in this country. We need love, affection, happiness... and Bolsonaro is the opposite of that," says Raymundo, a black history and philosophy teacher with bright pink hair.
Raymundo is the founder of an Afro-Brazilian cultural festival in Rio de Janeiro, "Wakanda in Madureira," inspired by the fictional kingdom of the Black Panther superhero.
Explaining his outrage, he cites some of Bolsonaro's most controversial remarks: saying a woman was "not worth raping" because she was "too ugly;" talking about weighing black people in "arrobas," a unit of measurement used for animals and, in centuries past, for slaves; saying he could not do anything about Brazil's soaring Covid-19 deaths because he was "not a gravedigger."
Raymundo is nostalgic for the "fundamental advances" for historically disadvantaged groups under Lula and his Workers' Party (PT), he says.
"Brazil is at a crossroads, with the chance to transform itself into a great country. But that will only happen if it knows how to include its racial diversity in the spheres of power," he says.
Raymundo wants to see a new generation of leaders emerge, but "for now, there's no alternative," he says.
Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's social programs helped lift tens of millions of people from poverty and chip away at deep-rooted inequality and discrimination in Brazil -- gains supporters hope will now resume.
AFP spoke to Lula voters about the October 2 election pitting the leftist ex-president (2003-2010) against far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
Writer, producer and cultural commentator Jonathan Raymundo, 33, is fed up with Bolsonaro's Brazil.
"I can't take it anymore. Violence against women, blacks and the LGTB+ community has reached alarming levels in this country. We need love, affection, happiness... and Bolsonaro is the opposite of that," says Raymundo, a black history and philosophy teacher with bright pink hair.
Raymundo is the founder of an Afro-Brazilian cultural festival in Rio de Janeiro, "Wakanda in Madureira," inspired by the fictional kingdom of the Black Panther superhero.
Explaining his outrage, he cites some of Bolsonaro's most controversial remarks: saying a woman was "not worth raping" because she was "too ugly;" talking about weighing black people in "arrobas," a unit of measurement used for animals and, in centuries past, for slaves; saying he could not do anything about Brazil's soaring Covid-19 deaths because he was "not a gravedigger."
Raymundo is nostalgic for the "fundamental advances" for historically disadvantaged groups under Lula and his Workers' Party (PT), he says.
"Brazil is at a crossroads, with the chance to transform itself into a great country. But that will only happen if it knows how to include its racial diversity in the spheres of power," he says.
Raymundo wants to see a new generation of leaders emerge, but "for now, there's no alternative," he says.
Historian Jonathan Raymundo, supporter of Brazilian presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, says he is fed up with President Jair Bolsonaro's Brazil ANDRE BORGES AFP
"We need Lula as president again."
In the northeastern city of Salvador, computer science teacher Messias Figueiredo, 56, is a well-known figure at left-wing protests -- instantly recognizable with his rectangular glasses and an ever-present red boom box emblazoned with Lula's picture.
"It's an instrument of peaceful political struggle," says Figueiredo, who blasts campaign jingles and pro-Lula commentary from his sound system as he marches.
"He enabled millions of Brazilians to escape poverty. He led the best government in this country's history."
Above all, he loves Lula because he, too, is from the impoverished northeast, "a region that has always lagged behind the rest of the country," he says.
He praises the former president for bringing investment to the region, opening universities there and launching construction of a massive canal to bring water from the Sao Francisco river to the semi-arid Sertao region.
"We can't take this fascist, genocidal, inhuman government anymore," he says through his loudspeaker, accusing Bolsonaro of "decimating" the environment and "massacring" Brazil's indigenous peoples.
In the northeastern city of Salvador, computer science teacher Messias Figueiredo, 56, is a well-known figure at left-wing protests -- instantly recognizable with his rectangular glasses and an ever-present red boom box emblazoned with Lula's picture.
"It's an instrument of peaceful political struggle," says Figueiredo, who blasts campaign jingles and pro-Lula commentary from his sound system as he marches.
"He enabled millions of Brazilians to escape poverty. He led the best government in this country's history."
Above all, he loves Lula because he, too, is from the impoverished northeast, "a region that has always lagged behind the rest of the country," he says.
He praises the former president for bringing investment to the region, opening universities there and launching construction of a massive canal to bring water from the Sao Francisco river to the semi-arid Sertao region.
"We can't take this fascist, genocidal, inhuman government anymore," he says through his loudspeaker, accusing Bolsonaro of "decimating" the environment and "massacring" Brazil's indigenous peoples.
Public health worker and union leader Aline Xavier, 33, credits Lula with helping her "beat the statistics," get an education and make a career for herself, despite being a black woman from the poor suburbs of Sao Paulo.
The PT "opened the door for me to have a voice... and not be excluded because I was a woman and black," she says.
Xavier, head of a municipal employees' union, believes in "everything Lula does," she says.
A graduate of a public school that opened under the PT, she disdains the Bolsonaro administration for its "neoliberal policies, attacks on workers' rights and intolerance for minorities."
Lula, she hopes, will restore "a government that goes into marginal areas, that gives opportunities to blacks, to working and single moms, that recognizes you can't have meritocracy if you don't have equality."
"Lula is the only one who can get our country back," she says.
Divisive Campaign Clouds Party As Brazil Turns 200
By Louis GENOT
09/06/22
Brazil celebrates the 200th anniversary of its independence Wednesday, with the festivities clouded by a divisive election race and accusations that President Jair Bolsonaro is using the festivities to bolster his campaign.
Trailing in the polls to leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of October's elections, Bolsonaro is planning a massive show of strength to mark the occasion, including military parades in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro and rallies by his supporters in cities across the country.
Last year on Brazil's national day, the far-right president triggered an outcry with a fiery speech saying "only God" could remove him from office and vowing to stop heeding rulings by Supreme Court Justice and top electoral official Alexandre de Moraes, whom Bolsonaro considers an enemy.
That year, Bolsonaro supporters broke through a security cordon in Brasilia on the eve of the festivities and threatened to invade the Supreme Court.
The race for the October 2 election has left Brazil deeply divided as it marks the anniversary of the date in 1822 that Dom Pedro I, then the sprawling South American colony's regent, declared its independence from Portugal.
Bolsonaro is trailing Lula in the polls heading into the first-round election, which will be followed by a runoff on October 30 if no candidate wins more than half the valid votes.
But the incumbent looks determined to flex his muscle on Independence Day.
"September 7 will be politicized by definition this year, coming in the home stretch of the campaign," said political scientist Paulo Baia of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
"It will be tense and potentially violent," he told AFP.
Bolsonaro will start the day presiding over an official military parade on Brasilia's Esplanade of Ministries.
Tens of thousands of spectators are expected, with a heavy security presence.
A pro-Bolsonaro rally is planned just after -- with critics accusing the president of blurring the line between his official duties and his campaign.
The incumbent will then fly to Rio de Janeiro, where his supporters are planning a motorcycle rally to the city's iconic Copacabana beach.
There, the military plans to put on another spectacle, with a cortage of navy ships tracing the coast, an air show and a paratroop display.
A group of pastors from Brazil's powerful Evangelical Christian community has rented a stage in Copacabana where the commander in chief could address the crowd.
Donations have also poured in from another largely pro-Bolsonaro group, Brazil's giant agribusiness sector, to help fund Independence Day events across the country.
The Bolsonaro camp has been highly active on social networks, urging supporters to turn out en masse for the day.
Bolsonaro's congressman son Eduardo raised eyebrows on Twitter Monday by calling on Brazilians "who have legally purchased guns" -- a contingent his father has sought to expand with aggressive gun-control rollbacks -- to enlist as "volunteers for Bolsonaro."
Such comments have added to fears of violence around the election if Bolsonaro, who regularly attacks Brazil's voting system as fraud-ridden -- without evidence -- follows in the footsteps of his political role model, former US president Donald Trump, and refuses to accept the result.
Lula, Brazil's president from 2003 to 2010, apparently plans to keep a low profile Wednesday, but has rallies scheduled for Thursday and a meeting with Evangelicals, a key voting bloc, on Friday.
By Louis GENOT
09/06/22
Brazil celebrates the 200th anniversary of its independence Wednesday, with the festivities clouded by a divisive election race and accusations that President Jair Bolsonaro is using the festivities to bolster his campaign.
Trailing in the polls to leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of October's elections, Bolsonaro is planning a massive show of strength to mark the occasion, including military parades in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro and rallies by his supporters in cities across the country.
Last year on Brazil's national day, the far-right president triggered an outcry with a fiery speech saying "only God" could remove him from office and vowing to stop heeding rulings by Supreme Court Justice and top electoral official Alexandre de Moraes, whom Bolsonaro considers an enemy.
That year, Bolsonaro supporters broke through a security cordon in Brasilia on the eve of the festivities and threatened to invade the Supreme Court.
The race for the October 2 election has left Brazil deeply divided as it marks the anniversary of the date in 1822 that Dom Pedro I, then the sprawling South American colony's regent, declared its independence from Portugal.
Bolsonaro is trailing Lula in the polls heading into the first-round election, which will be followed by a runoff on October 30 if no candidate wins more than half the valid votes.
But the incumbent looks determined to flex his muscle on Independence Day.
"September 7 will be politicized by definition this year, coming in the home stretch of the campaign," said political scientist Paulo Baia of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
"It will be tense and potentially violent," he told AFP.
Bolsonaro will start the day presiding over an official military parade on Brasilia's Esplanade of Ministries.
Tens of thousands of spectators are expected, with a heavy security presence.
A pro-Bolsonaro rally is planned just after -- with critics accusing the president of blurring the line between his official duties and his campaign.
The incumbent will then fly to Rio de Janeiro, where his supporters are planning a motorcycle rally to the city's iconic Copacabana beach.
There, the military plans to put on another spectacle, with a cortage of navy ships tracing the coast, an air show and a paratroop display.
A group of pastors from Brazil's powerful Evangelical Christian community has rented a stage in Copacabana where the commander in chief could address the crowd.
Donations have also poured in from another largely pro-Bolsonaro group, Brazil's giant agribusiness sector, to help fund Independence Day events across the country.
The Bolsonaro camp has been highly active on social networks, urging supporters to turn out en masse for the day.
Bolsonaro's congressman son Eduardo raised eyebrows on Twitter Monday by calling on Brazilians "who have legally purchased guns" -- a contingent his father has sought to expand with aggressive gun-control rollbacks -- to enlist as "volunteers for Bolsonaro."
Such comments have added to fears of violence around the election if Bolsonaro, who regularly attacks Brazil's voting system as fraud-ridden -- without evidence -- follows in the footsteps of his political role model, former US president Donald Trump, and refuses to accept the result.
Lula, Brazil's president from 2003 to 2010, apparently plans to keep a low profile Wednesday, but has rallies scheduled for Thursday and a meeting with Evangelicals, a key voting bloc, on Friday.
Brazil's Bolsonaro Still The 'Bibles, Bullets And Beef' Candidate
By AFP News
09/05/22
09/05/22
Former Military Police Major Elitusalem Gomes de Freitas, wearing a t-shirt bearing the name of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, poses for a picture carrying his guns and the Brazilian flag, in the city of Nova Iguacu
Four years after President Jair Bolsonaro rode to victory on a groundswell of support from Brazil's "Bibles, bullets and beef" coalition, that powerful trio of groups is still the core of his base.
AFP spoke to Bolsonaro backers from the "BBB" constituencies -- conservative Christians, security hardliners and farmers -- about the October 2 election pitting the far-right incumbent against leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010).
Former Rio de Janeiro police officer Elitusalem Gomes Freitas, 42, says his admiration for Bolsonaro began well before the ex-army captain's 2018 campaign, when the now-president was still a congressman for Rio.
"When officers were killed in the line of duty, other politicians never sent condolences. Bolsonaro did," says Freitas.
"He went to the funerals and paid tribute to our colleagues."
Freitas, a powerfully built man who spent two decades as a cop before getting into local politics, is now running to represent Rio in Congress, as Bolsonaro once did.
Pictures on his social networks show him with a stern face, a rifle, a Brazilian flag and a black T-shirt stamped with the word "Bolsonaro."
He calls himself a pro-gun father, conservative and "terror of the left."
Bolsonaro's win four years ago "generated huge expectations among conservatives," he says.
"But problems that have been dragging on for 30 years don't get solved in four."
Still, he loves Bolsonaro's "integrity," after what he calls the "robbery" of Lula and his Workers' Party.
Like Bolsonaro, he alleges nefarious powers are plotting a "secret vote count" to steal the election.
"The people accusing Bolsonaro of planning a coup are inverting the narrative. They're the real coup-mongers," he says.
Retired math teacher Mariza Russo Feres, 68, says she prays every day "for Brazil and the president God will choose."
The Evangelical pastor's wife fears Lula returning to power.
"I'm afraid of communism," she says, sitting in a pew at the church where her husband preaches in the upscale Sao Paulo neighborhood of Pinheiros.
She sees Bolsonaro as the defender of family values, and Lula as a threat.
"For example, abortion is anti-Christian, and we're worried about a candidate... imposing it on us," she says, referring to pro-abortion rights statements by Lula, who later back-tracked, facing negative reactions in a country that remains largely conservative on the issue.
Feres also cites the left's supposed imposition of "gender ideology" in schools.
Bible in hand, she kneels, closes her eyes and prays for the country.
Farmer Carlos Alberto Moresco, 47, says he is far from "idolizing" Bolsonaro. You won't find any campaign posters for the incumbent on his farm, Fazenda Onca.
But the facts speak for themselves, he says: Bolsonaro has been the best president in recent history for Brazil's agribusiness industry, opening new markets in Asia and investing in infrastructure that helped boost exports.
"He was very smart in choosing his ministers. Our (former) agriculture minister (Tereza Cristina) was an agricultural engineer," says Moresco, who grows corn and soybeans on the 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) he rents outside the central-western farm town of Luziania.
He is also a fan of the Bolsonaro administration's program to regularize land titles for more than 350,000 farmers who lacked legal deeds.
"He gave dignity to these people who were barely scraping by. Today, with titles to their land, they can take out loans and farm with dignity," he says.
"When someone's loyal to my values and principles, I'm loyal to them. Our president values rich and poor alike, that's why I say he deserves four more years."
Four years after President Jair Bolsonaro rode to victory on a groundswell of support from Brazil's "Bibles, bullets and beef" coalition, that powerful trio of groups is still the core of his base.
AFP spoke to Bolsonaro backers from the "BBB" constituencies -- conservative Christians, security hardliners and farmers -- about the October 2 election pitting the far-right incumbent against leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010).
Former Rio de Janeiro police officer Elitusalem Gomes Freitas, 42, says his admiration for Bolsonaro began well before the ex-army captain's 2018 campaign, when the now-president was still a congressman for Rio.
"When officers were killed in the line of duty, other politicians never sent condolences. Bolsonaro did," says Freitas.
"He went to the funerals and paid tribute to our colleagues."
Freitas, a powerfully built man who spent two decades as a cop before getting into local politics, is now running to represent Rio in Congress, as Bolsonaro once did.
Pictures on his social networks show him with a stern face, a rifle, a Brazilian flag and a black T-shirt stamped with the word "Bolsonaro."
He calls himself a pro-gun father, conservative and "terror of the left."
Bolsonaro's win four years ago "generated huge expectations among conservatives," he says.
"But problems that have been dragging on for 30 years don't get solved in four."
Still, he loves Bolsonaro's "integrity," after what he calls the "robbery" of Lula and his Workers' Party.
Like Bolsonaro, he alleges nefarious powers are plotting a "secret vote count" to steal the election.
"The people accusing Bolsonaro of planning a coup are inverting the narrative. They're the real coup-mongers," he says.
Retired math teacher Mariza Russo Feres, 68, says she prays every day "for Brazil and the president God will choose."
The Evangelical pastor's wife fears Lula returning to power.
"I'm afraid of communism," she says, sitting in a pew at the church where her husband preaches in the upscale Sao Paulo neighborhood of Pinheiros.
She sees Bolsonaro as the defender of family values, and Lula as a threat.
"For example, abortion is anti-Christian, and we're worried about a candidate... imposing it on us," she says, referring to pro-abortion rights statements by Lula, who later back-tracked, facing negative reactions in a country that remains largely conservative on the issue.
Feres also cites the left's supposed imposition of "gender ideology" in schools.
Bible in hand, she kneels, closes her eyes and prays for the country.
Farmer Carlos Alberto Moresco, 47, says he is far from "idolizing" Bolsonaro. You won't find any campaign posters for the incumbent on his farm, Fazenda Onca.
But the facts speak for themselves, he says: Bolsonaro has been the best president in recent history for Brazil's agribusiness industry, opening new markets in Asia and investing in infrastructure that helped boost exports.
"He was very smart in choosing his ministers. Our (former) agriculture minister (Tereza Cristina) was an agricultural engineer," says Moresco, who grows corn and soybeans on the 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) he rents outside the central-western farm town of Luziania.
He is also a fan of the Bolsonaro administration's program to regularize land titles for more than 350,000 farmers who lacked legal deeds.
"He gave dignity to these people who were barely scraping by. Today, with titles to their land, they can take out loans and farm with dignity," he says.
"When someone's loyal to my values and principles, I'm loyal to them. Our president values rich and poor alike, that's why I say he deserves four more years."
Mariza Russo Feres, at the church where her husband preaches in Sao Paulo, Brazil, fears former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returning to power
Brazilian farmer Carlos Moresco believes President Jair Bolsonaro has been the best leader in recent history for Brazil's agribusiness industry
Brazil celebrates the 200th anniversary of its independence Wednesday, with the festivities clouded by a divisive election race and accusations that President Jair Bolsonaro is using the festivities to bolster his campaign. FRANCE 24's International Affairs Armen Georgian tells us more.
Author: AFP|
Update: 06.09.2022
Gun enthusiasts at the Shot Fair Brazil in Joinville,
Gun enthusiasts at the Shot Fair Brazil in Joinville,
in Santa Catarina state, Brazil, in August 2022 / © AFP
A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Monday temporarily suspended several provisions implemented by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro that allowed people to buy weapons, citing a "risk of political violence" during the electoral campaign.
"The start of the election campaign exacerbates the risk of political violence," which "makes the need to restrict access to weapons and ammunition extremely and exceptionally urgent," Justice Edson Fachin wrote.
Fachin said he made the decision "in light of recent and unfortunate episodes of political violence."
He did not specify whether he was referring to local events, such as the July shooting of a Workers' Party (PT) treasurer by a Bolsonaro-supporting police officer, or the attempted assassination in neighboring Argentina Thursday of the Vice President Cristina Kirchner.
According to the court, Fachin's decision establishes that only "people who concretely demonstrate an effective need" can have weapons, one of the rules that Bolsonaro, an enthusiastic backer of gun ownership, had relaxed by decree.
It also determines that purchasing restricted-use firearms should only be allowed for reasons of "public security or national defense, not based on personal interest," as for hunters, sports shooters and collectors, who can buy assault rifles.
That category of gun buyers, which jumped from 117,000 registrations to more than 673,000 under the Bolsonaro administration, is of particular concern to security experts, who fear episodes of violence as the polarized election on October 2 approaches.
The vote pits Bolsonaro against leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro's constant questioning of the electronic voting system has raised fears that his followers will reject any eventual defeat, and could replicate scenes such as the assault on the US Capitol in 2021 after former president Donald Trump lost at the polls.
Monday's decision comes into immediate effect until the full federal Supreme Court concludes its deliberations on the constitutionality of the decrees, which have been suspended for the past year.
Lawyer Bruno Langeani, a member of the NGO Instituto Sou da Paz, told AFP the decision was an "important" one that "indicates an understanding on the part of the Supreme Court that weapons can be a destabilizing element in the elections."
Brazil's Superior Electoral Court last week restricted the carrying of weapons in polling stations, in another sign of concern about possible episodes of violence.
A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Monday temporarily suspended several provisions implemented by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro that allowed people to buy weapons, citing a "risk of political violence" during the electoral campaign.
"The start of the election campaign exacerbates the risk of political violence," which "makes the need to restrict access to weapons and ammunition extremely and exceptionally urgent," Justice Edson Fachin wrote.
Fachin said he made the decision "in light of recent and unfortunate episodes of political violence."
He did not specify whether he was referring to local events, such as the July shooting of a Workers' Party (PT) treasurer by a Bolsonaro-supporting police officer, or the attempted assassination in neighboring Argentina Thursday of the Vice President Cristina Kirchner.
According to the court, Fachin's decision establishes that only "people who concretely demonstrate an effective need" can have weapons, one of the rules that Bolsonaro, an enthusiastic backer of gun ownership, had relaxed by decree.
It also determines that purchasing restricted-use firearms should only be allowed for reasons of "public security or national defense, not based on personal interest," as for hunters, sports shooters and collectors, who can buy assault rifles.
That category of gun buyers, which jumped from 117,000 registrations to more than 673,000 under the Bolsonaro administration, is of particular concern to security experts, who fear episodes of violence as the polarized election on October 2 approaches.
The vote pits Bolsonaro against leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro's constant questioning of the electronic voting system has raised fears that his followers will reject any eventual defeat, and could replicate scenes such as the assault on the US Capitol in 2021 after former president Donald Trump lost at the polls.
Monday's decision comes into immediate effect until the full federal Supreme Court concludes its deliberations on the constitutionality of the decrees, which have been suspended for the past year.
Lawyer Bruno Langeani, a member of the NGO Instituto Sou da Paz, told AFP the decision was an "important" one that "indicates an understanding on the part of the Supreme Court that weapons can be a destabilizing element in the elections."
Brazil's Superior Electoral Court last week restricted the carrying of weapons in polling stations, in another sign of concern about possible episodes of violence.
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