We need the symbolism of the scene of Steve Bannon in handcuffs.

By Moisés Mendes, for 247 

There is a mixture of envy and hope in the feeling provoked by the images in which Steve Bannon appeared this week, handcuffed with his hands behind his back.

Envy because the American justice system is finally starting to retaliate against the far-right mobster who inspires the Bolsonaros.

And there's hope because we imagine that the scene could one day repeat itself here, even if Brazil doesn't have someone of Steve Bannon's stature.

For now, nothing reminds us of any similar scene, especially since the use of handcuffs has been restricted.

What we have here are actions that ultimately expose our limitations. Let's look at some recent examples, all involving small-time figures from or close to the far right.

They have now arrested Bolsonaro supporter and candidate for federal deputy in Rio, Delegate Allan Turnowski, for protecting illegal gambling operators.

The electoral court in Rio de Janeiro revoked the registration of Daniel Silveira's candidacy for senator; he is a repeat offender against Supreme Court justices.

In the same electoral court, they prevented the harassing councilman Gabriel Monteiro from running for federal deputy.

The Regional Electoral Court (TRE) also denied registration to the candidacy of Washington Reis, vice-presidential candidate on Cláudio Castro's ticket, due to convictions for environmental crimes and illegal land subdivisions.

Almost all those excluded from the elections have convictions in court or are under investigation by the Public Prosecutor's Office, or were abandoned and pushed to the point of sacrifice by their own partners.

But there is no one among them from the first rank of Bolsonarism. Not even the veteran Roberto Jefferson, who intended to pretend to be a presidential candidate but had his registration revoked by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), has political prominence.

We need to find someone from that group who is far above them, and above a Sara Winter, a Zé Trovão, or an Allan dos Santos. And not just for electoral offenses or for spreading fake news and threats against institutions and ministers.

What's missing is catching members of criminal factions organized around Bolsonaro's ideology, in all areas, to do business with them.

We still need to prosecute the coup-plotting businessmen, the sponsors of defamation factories, who have never been bothered by tax evasion and money laundering because they enjoy the immunities of economic power that only the right wing possesses.

It is often repeated that the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judiciary, at all levels, lacked the political support to move forward with reparations. This explanation is more akin to resignation.

Only the end of the elections and their predictable consequences offer us the possibility of an end to impunity. Because here too, as Bannon did in the United States, and as Trump continues to do, the justice system is disregarded.

In Brazil, the pandemic gangs, vaccine sellers, and chloroquine propagandists also mock justice.

Those protected by some form of immunity, with indictments requested by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, have already been dealt with favorably by the Attorney General's Office and had their cases dismissed.

But what about the others? There are more than 60 people without special legal privileges accused of participating in crimes that are rarely isolated, according to the commission, because they were committed by civilian and uniformed factions that operated inside and outside the Ministry of Health.

Nothing is known so far about what might happen to those who sold non-existent vaccines and to the participants in Pazuello's parallel cabinet, who lied and sabotaged immunization.

Perhaps nothing will happen at all, and those punished will only be those whom the electoral court reached and those whom Alexandre de Moraes caught well before. Almost all of them are lowlifes of the far-right.

We don't have a giant equivalent to Steve Bannon in Brazil. Eduardo Bolsonaro is just a junior disciple, an operator for his father.

We wouldn't have a powerful and strategic Bannon even if we added together all the businessmen who finance the digital militias and the scam-plotting uncles on WhatsApp, because they're just uncles on WhatsApp.

The Brazilian Bannon, judging by evidence of money laundering, coups, and violence, may be the entire family in power.

The family that mocks the Supreme Court as much as their guru tried to humiliate American judges.

At some point, the family will have to fall, with some collapsing on top of others, when democracy, free from fascism, also takes charge of rescuing the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judiciary.

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