The Brazil Situation In 60 seconds
Simple Non-biased breakdown of the 2022 Brazilian Elections and Civil Unrest
I know a lot of people around the world are watching the situation in Brazil but have no idea what’s actually going on. I’m going to try to break it all down for you here with as little bias as possible, lets go!
The Stage
First, let’s set the stage. Brazil, like the United States has presidential elections every four years, the vice president is also on the same ticket. In Brazil the legal voting age is 16 and everyone over 18 is required to vote unless you got a good excuse.
Brazil is #8 on the global GDP list right under France so they have a lot of economic output but they’re ranked #81 in GDP per capita. So that means money is very concentrated in the hands of a few and not actually going out to the people. Not sure how serious you want to take this website but Brazil scores a 39/100 when it comes to corruption, the best country Denmark scores a 88/100. Either way, I think we can agree that it’s not the ‘least’ corrupt country in the world.
Supreme Federal Court
The Brazil Supreme Court is not like most courts, they’ve given themselves the power to censor people. They can demand social media companies to censor people for spreading whatever they deem to be “fake news”. They even put people in jail for posts on Social Media without trial. The Court has been accused of favoring one candidate(Lula) over the other. So keep this in mind as you read along.
The Players
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva But we’ll call him Lula
Missing a finger
Began his life as a metalworker and trade unionist
Led worker strikes in the 70s and 80s
Leftist
Elected president in 2002 and 2006, failed multiple elections before then.
Charged with money laundering and sentenced in 2017, spent 500+ days in jail.
Tried to run for president in 2018 but was disqualified after judges voted on the matter.
Wins controversial 2022 election
Jair Bolsonaro
Veteran
Accused of planning to plant Bombs in Brazilian military units but was acquitted
Elected City Councilor of Rio in 1989
Right
Elected Federal Deputy of Rio in 1991
Trump-like way of speaking and similar polarization
Stabbed during presidential campaign in 2018 (see bullet above)
Won 2018 presidential election
Accused of being against protecting the Amazon rainforest and reserving lands for indigenous tribes
Accused of mishandling the COVID-19 crisis because he was dismissive.
The Battle
From a top down perspective the 2022 Brazilian election looked a lot like the 2020 elections in the United States. It’s kind of like copying answers from a bad student in class. There was the same disinformation, censorship, refusal to accept results and more. It’s almost like watching the same movie twice but you fear there might be a plot twist at the end of this one.
Lula won the presidency with 50.90%, Bolsonaro had 49.10%
The country is evenly divided, but also a lot of people’s vote for Lula was not for him specifically but against the “current thing”. This election brought a lot of unrest to Brazil.
After the election Bolsonaro didn’t accept defeat and his party challenged the election by accusing some machines of being faulty. But Bolsonaro stated he will leave office to comply with the constitution. People took to the streets and began to protest, they even stood in front of military bases asking them to “intervene”.
Bolsonaro flew to his home in Florida and did not attend Lula’s swear in ceremony.
On Jan 9 2023, Bolsonaro supporters stormed the supreme court, national congress and the presidential palace.
As always, thanks for reading, I’ll do a part 2 if necessary.
I didn't know the voting age was so young and also compulsory. Do non voters get fined or is it a benign law?