On January 8th supporters of Jair Bolsanaro, the former conservative president of Brazil who had lost his reelection in October to liberal Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (called Lula), stormed the buildings of the Supreme Court of Brazil, the National Congress of Brazil, and the Planalto Presidential Palace in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, in an attempt to reinstate Bolsonaro.

   As the attack was on a Sunday, the government was not in session and no politicians were present, but the buildings were heavily damaged and vandalized until the riots were eventually suppressed by Brazilian security forces and some of the participants detained.

   “It’s really disturbing, all three branches of the Republic of Brazil for a few hours were breached. It’s just showing what’s happening here in the United States (contesting of elections and political polarization) is a global phenomenon, and now we’re seeing it in Brazil,” said Neil McCarthy, social studies teacher. 

   The protest seemed to be largely organized on various social media platforms, which also contributed to spreading misinformation about the Brazilian presidential election. 

   “So very similarly in Brazil, they are very, very polarized, much like the United States,” stated McCarthy, citing the various social medias which attempt to keep its users attention by using “extreme” content. 

   Comparisons can be made to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol to keep President Donald Trump in power.

   Andrew Hood, social studies teacher, compared the two. “No one was in session, no one was working (during the Brazil attack). So it was more of a symbolic attack while January 6th was more of a physical attack.”

   McCarthy explained Bolsanaro’s similarities to Trump. “So people got very radicalized on the right following Bolsonaro, who like Trump, had rhetoric that, in my opinion, was very irresponsible about the election being stolen and also preparing them before the election, ‘oh, it’s going to be rigged if I don’t win’, just like Trump. And so he echoed Trump on many levels. And one big difference though is unlike Trump, Bolsonaro …actually said within the first couple of days that he conceded…but then he fled to Florida (Bolsonaro left for the U.S. on December 30th of last year to avoid taking part in the swearing in ceremony of Lula and is still there as of January 26th).”

   Bolsanaro also has his own version of the MAGA hat, that being the Brazilian soccer jersey, “One of the things that really depresses me is how Bolsonaro, when he was in power, co-opted the national soccer team, and would wear the national jersey, which for everyone in Brazil was a similar prop. It’s a religion and he used it in big rallies and speeches, so everyone, all of his supporters, started wearing Brazilian soccer jerseys and now redefined what it means to wear that. And now, almost the majority of Brazilians tragically during this World Cup, big huge fans, would not wear the national soccer jersey because now they are associated with fascism, with Bolsonaro,” said McCarthy. 

   Social studies teacher Thomas Kuhn described what exactly makes the January 8th attack so alarming. “The worrisome part of this is it could be starting to be the trend: don’t recognize things, don’t recognize the other side, don’t recognize them as the victor and then you just hold out until it’s your chance to win. So democracy’s in trouble.”

   Hood furthered this idea. “It’s showing this idea that we can just contest a popular election, we can contest the results of a democracy. And that’s spreading to political parties all over the world in different countries. It just seems like the global state of democracy might be deteriorating.”

   Brazil’s new president, Lula, had previously held the office from 2003 to 2010, but couldn’t run for reelection in 2010 as the Brazilian constitution bars one from serving more than two consecutive terms.

   “So he (Lula) was a member of the liberal party or the left leaning party, definitely a social liberal who was all about protecting public good, increasing entitlements and welfare benefits and trying to promote the public. The lower classes are a huge fan of him. He had a lot of corruption happen in his party. He actually went to jail for something that he was eventually exonerated from, embezzlement, corruption, the whole nine yards. So he was in jail while Jair Bolsonaro took power,” stated Hood. 

   Lula went to jail in 2018 on charges of money laundering and corruption in a controversial trial before being released in 2019 due to a Supreme Court ruling banning imprisonment if there’s a pending appeal. In March 2021 the Supreme Court also ruled his conviction nullified due to the court he was tried under not having proper jurisdiction over his case and that the judge in his corruption trial was biased. 

   Hood also provided a profile on Bolsonaro, who became president in 2019. “He’s conservative, he’s pro-business, he’s pro-life, and he’s a pro religious influence. But he’s also pro tearing down the rainforest. He’s all about allowing businesses to get involved in logging and fossil fuels. So as an individual, he’s definitely an ultra-conservative.”

   McCarthy explained the backgrounds and motivations behind those who participated in the riots. “The white population of Brazil of European origin (Brazilians) and Portuguese tend to be wealthier for historic reasons. They tend to own a lot more property, tend to have the better jobs than Africans or…Afro Brazilians…There are certain privileges that white folks have in Brazil. Their slogans are…let’s make Brazil great again, kind of rhetoric, and they’re feeling like they’re losing their grip on their historic control of the country.”

   However, in this time of increasing polarization in Brazil, the United States, and abroad, both sides should be looking to unite and seek compromise rather than continuing to divide and attack, an idea with which McCarthy agreed.

   McCarthy concluded, “I hope the new president Lula, who was very popular when he was president, will use his very slight margin of victory to do his best to really truly try and unify the country. He’s not going to get all the Bolsonaro people of course, but if he gets 10% of them and says look, let’s just try and fix our problems together, let’s try and find some compromise, rather than trying to bury the right.”