Image / El Confidencial

By María Josefina Arce

Only a great rejection could provoke the coup attempt in Brazil by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro, seeking to reverse the results of last October's general elections that gave victory to Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva.

Leaders and personalities from various countries of the world, as well as regional blocs condemned the attack on constitutionality in the South American giant and the alteration of public order and security.

The Bolsonaristas violently occupied in Brasilia, the capital, the main public buildings of the country, the Congress, the Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court, causing damage to public property.

These actions disregarded the will of the Brazilian people, who with more than 50% of the votes elected Lula Da Silva to occupy for the third time the presidency of Brazil, after four years of an ineffective and controversial mandate of Bolsonaro, during which poverty grew and inequalities deepened.

The ultra-rightists took advantage of the fact that the head of state was in the state of Sao Paulo, where he was inspecting areas damaged by the recent heavy rains. 

Already since Bolsonaro's electoral defeat, his supporters staged violent actions. They blocked highways and demonstrated in front of military barracks to ask the armed forces to prevent the inauguration of Lula Da Silva, on the first of December, in which the outgoing president was not present, as he preferred to travel to the United States, where he happens to be at the moment.

Last December, ultra-right-wing demonstrators clashed with the police and set buses on fire, and hours before the inauguration ceremony, an individual was arrested for placing an explosive in a truck at the airport of the Brazilian capital.

Bolsonaro did not acknowledge his defeat at the polls, and in the public statement he made two days after the elections he only thanked his voters, but he did vindicate the coup blockades.

The truth is that during his administration, the retired army captain, a great admirer of the military dictatorship in power in Brazil from 1964 to 1985, maintained a hateful discourse, and at all times questioned the Brazilian electoral system.

A pretext to justify any illegal or violent action to reverse the results of the elections and even annul them, in case of losing, as it finally happened.

In fact, less than a week ago, the Socialism and Liberty Party filed an appeal before the Supreme Federal Court for Bolsonaro to be arrested, accused of encouraging violent acts.

In the South American giant, as many agree, the events of January 2021 seem to be repeated, when the US Congress was assaulted by followers of the now former president Donald Trump, by the way very much admired by Bolsonaro.

The ultra-right in Brazil activated its mechanisms to try to illegally and violently retain power, legitimately lost at the polls. Once again it showed its contempt for the will of the people.