Discerning the inspiration for a moment of infamy can be ridiculously simple. The audacious attack by supporters of Brazil’s far-right ex-President Jair Bolsonaro on government buildings in the capital looked every bit as chaotic and destructive as the infamous Jan. 6, 2021, onslaught on the U.S. Capitol. The toxic mix of pent-up anger and ugly violence was eerily similar.
In the case of Brasilia, rioters laid siege to not just Brazil’s Congress but also its presidential offices and Supreme Court. Bolsonaro loyalists filmed themselves as they clubbed police officers, smashed plate glass windows and rifled through government desks. In Brazil’s Congress, rioters giddily savored taking over the legislature’s upper chamber, an image wholly reminiscent of Donald Trump’s backers whooping it up in the Senate chamber.
Coincidence? That’s doubtful. Trump honed the template for fabricating claims of election fraud and goading hordes of supporters to turn those claims into justification for mayhem. The inevitable conclusion for Bolsonaro loyalists: If it can happen in Washington, why not Brasilia?
Bolsonaro was just as reckless as Trump in churning out baseless claims of a rigged election. The former Brazilian leader has been trying to delegitimize the country’s election system for years, saying it’s hopelessly tainted by fraud. He has not presented evidence to back his claims.
Over time, Bolsonaro seeded among his followers the distrust in Brazil’s democratic institutions that led to what took place in Brasilia on Sunday. After the October presidential election, legions of his supporters camped out for weeks outside Brazil’s army headquarters, calling on the military to overturn the results of the presidential election and declare Bolsonaro the winner. Bolsonaro could have been much more forceful in urging his supporters to stand down — instead, he allowed them to go on believing the lie of a rigged election.
Like Trump, Bolsonaro refused to attend the inauguration of the rightful winner — in Brazil’s case, leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former president who served 17 months in prison on corruption charges that later were tossed. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, Bolsonaro even retreated to the same place where Trump sought refuge after his loss — Florida.
There’s no indication that Trump or anyone in his circle had anything to do with what happened in Brasilia. But that doesn’t matter. Trump’s refusal to accede to the peaceful transfer of power, as well as his overt attempts to assemble a slate of fake electors and his actions to incite the insurrectionists on Jan. 6, established an ignominious precedent for Bolsonaro’s loyalists to follow.
The lesson for America is clear. The peril posed by the insurrection at the Capitol wasn’t just domestic. Countries around the world, particularly those in Latin America, are to varying degrees influenced by whatever example the U.S. sets. The Trump presidency thrived on the manufacture of misinformation. Bolsonaro, Trump-like enough to be nicknamed “the Trump of the Tropics,” governed in much the same way.
But just as Bolsonaro’s supporters took a cue from Jan. 6 insurrectionists, Lula’s government should take a cue from President Joe Biden’s top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, and prosecute Brazil’s insurrectionists to the fullest extent of the law.
At least 950 people have been charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol. The cases have included everything from trespassing to seditious conspiracy, and the sentences range from probation or a few weeks in jail to 10 years in prison. Even more important was the House select committee’s deep dive into the Jan. 6 attack, as well as Garland’s ongoing investigation into the potential for any culpability on the part of Trump and his top aides.
Accountability for what happened Jan. 6 is nonnegotiable, and Lula’s government should adhere to the same standard.
So far, there is no evidence that Bolsonaro had any direct role in the violence in Brasilia on Sunday. Nevertheless, Brazil’s justice system should leave no stone unturned. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Brazilian authorities are looking into whether individuals in the country’s powerful agribusiness sector helped finance the rioters, many of whom got to Brasilia in a convoy of more than three dozen buses. Bolsonaro has received strong support from Brazil’s wealthy farming regions.
Lula told Brazilians this week that authorities will pursue justice against anyone involved in the riots. “What they want is a coup, and they won’t have one. They have to learn that democracy is the most complicated thing we do.”
That’s heartening to hear because the best antidote for the kind of anti-democratic chaos that America saw two years ago, and that Brazil endured Sunday, is an unyielding commitment to ensuring it doesn’t go unpunished.
