Brazil: Tricks, Lies and Videos to Topple Lula | Bolsonaro is trying to recreate a conspiracy climate with lies and edited images

From Brasilia

Dynamite government Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. An edited video sent shockwaves through the ruling party and jubilation among supporters of Jair Bolsonaro About the attempted coup on January 8, when activists stormed the Planaldo Palace, Parliament and the Federal Supreme Court, demanding the installation of military rule (perhaps under the guidance of military intelligence agents).

Two minutes

A large part of the caravan that attacked Planaldo left the army headquartersIn Brasilia, early afternoon of January 8: the invasion began after fourteen hours and ended around seven that Sunday.

Dozens of security cameras recorded the attack on the property, which has 18-millimeter-thick glass walls that did not withstand three hammer blows or a fire extinguisher blow. Of this audiovisual material, only two minutes have been selected Attempts were made to prove the complicity of the President and his officials in the attack.

Some far-right legislators, perhaps unconsciously, They asserted that the leader and leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) was somehow a self-instigator, for which he would have infiltrated left-wing militants among the opposition. He wore the jersey of the Brazilian national team and chanted anti-communist slogans.

Now it’s Lula who has to give “explanations,” the deputy tweeted, saying she’s “at the center of the hurricane.” Carla ZambelliIt was one of the most frequently visited houses during Bolsonaro’s tenure between January 2019 and December 2022.

Posts like Zambelli’s dominate social networks these days, where ultras maintain the dominance they gained under the previous government. “Ministry of Hate” The president’s son is responsible for spreading fake news Carlos BolsonaroWith offices within Planaldo.

One hundred and sixty hours

In a video “published by CNN Brazil” last Wednesday, the new minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet said that they wanted to “criminalize the victims of the coup”, following the method used by the “fascists” in the past. Riccardo Cabelli.

Capelli announced that to shed light on what really happened on January 8 and “to prove the responsibility of the terrorists (…) I am now making public all the available images, which have been recorded for one hundred and sixty hours.” Saturday for TV 247 channel.

The coup attempt, which had been “promoted” by Bolsonaro for months, was a bet by saboteurs to create a massive fake news story about what happened in early January, the minister of institutional relations added. Alexandre Padilla.

The official expects this “conspiracy, absurd, flat-land narrative” to be refuted in Congress by a joint parliamentary inquiry committee set up next Wednesday.

Kill Lula

An attempted coup on January 8, seven days after the new administration took office, certainly happened Institutional defense was the complicity of the military in the cabinet Remnants of previous government. Between 2019 and 2022 the organization was under the command of Gen Augustus HellenusBorn Bolsonaro.

A few days before the democratic restoration, Helenou promised that Lula would not climb the palace ramp alive: a sniper brandishing his weapon with a telescopic sight made the same threat on social networks.

Continued blow

The first coup rehearsal begins on September 7, 2021, when then-President Bolsonaro incited tens of thousands of supporters who rose up against the Federal Supreme Court in Brasilia in the morning and São Paulo in the afternoon in a sortie. The rebellion against the “establishment” did not flourish, but had an unquestionable pedagogical effect. Bolsonaro’s plan, by all accounts, was to break the democratic order from within the state and find any excuse to do so.

Defeated by Lula in the October 30, 2022 election, he ignored the result, and hours later gave the green light to mobilize thousands of allies who set up camps at army headquarters in Brasilia and blocked roads across the country. and other military units from São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina, and Paraná.

The President’s ally falls

The two-minute video was devastating for the government: just hours after it was released Lula was forced to accept the resignation of retired General Marco Gonzalez Diaz. Chairman of the Institutional Security Cabinet.

Editing shows Gonçalves Diaz walking through the third floor of the Planaldo, where the office of the head of state is located, along with the rest of the vandals destroying everything in their path. It cannot be inferred from these that the former officer was now complicit with the invaders. Nor is there any evidence to conclusively establish that it resisted aggression.

Some ministers regretted Gonçalves Diaz’s departure. According to these officials, he is a “commander without troops” because members of the defense cabinet will continue to take orders from his lieutenants, such as Bolsonaro or Augusto Heleno.

Official Companion Carlos Zaratini He told the TV forum he had “great confidence” in the resigned officer, who was questioned for five hours by the federal police this Friday.

“Gonçalves Díaz is loyal to Lula, has been with him for years, always on the side of democracy, I don’t see that he supported the invaders, maybe he was wrong. That video has to go. In the trash, CNN or someone released that video”, of the parliamentary commission investigating the January coup. Zaratini confirmed that his name was being considered as a potential member.

Lula in Portugal

The President visited Portugal on Saturday where he was received by the President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and the Prime Minister Antonio Costa. During a speech before officials and during a conversation with journalists, he referred to the events of the past week that have built up the world stage.

“It’s interesting what’s going on in the world, and I was born at the end of the second war I have never seen such an atmosphere of hate created by the fake news industry. Through the means, people’s heads are being manipulated and nearly 150 years of painstakingly built democracy in the EU is being destroyed.

In Brazil, which returned in 1985 after 21 years of dictatorship and had less than 30 years of democracy, “extremism is reborn, fascism that denies everything that is democratic, fascism that denies political parties, unions, a free press. It started with the election of Trump. In America, I don’t know where it’s going.” “

for now The Portuguese far-right party “Sega” promised a demonstration against Lula This week, as announced by its chairman Andre Ventura, While preparing for a meeting with “comrade” Jair Bolsonaro in Lisbon in mid-May.

Militarization

Lula said this Saturday in Portugal that he had not decided what the fate of the defense cabinet would be, as he temporarily appointed civilian Ricardo Cabelli to the military establishment.

Security experts think so The time has come for that cabinet to remain permanently in civilian orbitDespite tension in the military that it should be developed, along with other measures such as reform of study programs at military academies and legislation prohibiting serving soldiers from being candidates for elective posts.

After the fall of Gonçalves Diaz, Prof Francisco TeixeiraA statement by an esteemed professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, not unanimous among his colleagues, but widely discussed in the academic and political spheres.

“I’m going to say something very serious, and I’m going to make it cool, based on information from various sources and trends that I’ve researched,” he announced. “Conspiracy Against President Lula.”