Four years of coup and destruction of Brazil.

May 12, 2016, will never leave my memory. On that date, I turned 45 years old and, while reading dozens of messages arriving via Facebook, I followed the Senate vote on the biggest political farce in the country's history: the coup d'état against former President Dilma Rousseff, removed from office for "fiscal irresponsibility." The following day, Friday the 13th, she would be replaced by Michel Temer, the vice-president who betrayed her and who, by betraying her, betrayed the very decorum of the office, as well as the Brazilian constitution. Temer will achieve only one feat in his lackluster biography: he will rehabilitate Joaquim Silvério dos Reis and take his place as the greatest symbol of betrayal.

After four years of destruction of Brazil's image and economy, even those who were led by ignorance or opportunism to participate in the coup can now make an unbiased assessment of the situation. What are the news stories of the day? Jews condemn the use of a Nazi slogan by the Brazilian government, The economic team is burning through reserves. As the dollar approaches six reais, the ambassador points out that... Brazil is heading towards irrelevance. on the global map… and this is only a partial snapshot of May 12, 2020.

Was this Brazil's destiny? It wasn't meant to be. In 2016, the country was to host the Olympic Games just two years after hosting the World Cup. Brazil was also one of the countries that attracted the most international investment. And it could be today, in 2020, preparing the celebrations for its bicentennial of Independence in a position of sovereignty. Unfortunately, everything changed for the worse, and our current condition is that of a neocolony of an empire struggling to avoid its decline.

Today, it is also possible to make an unbiased assessment of the legacy of the fight against corruption in Brazil. Engineering companies, which were a symbol of Brazilian entrepreneurial capacity, have been decimated, and there are more than 100 unemployed engineers. Entire production chains have been destroyed, such as those in the oil and gas and shipbuilding sectors. In Brasília, Congress has become populated by figures who emerged from anonymity and now claim to be repentant. In this same parliament, the protagonist of the coup, Congressman Aécio Neves (PSDB-MG), continues to be denounced for various cases of corruption, under the hypocritical protection of the Brazilian corporate media. Former judge Sergio Moro is called "Judas" by the very man he put in power. And even the national symbols and colors have been appropriated by fascism. The green and yellow, once an object of admiration worldwide, now inspires shame.

It is also crucial to say that the coup against Dilma was not only a farce, but also one of the greatest acts of political violence, if not the greatest, in Brazilian history. Because it dispensed with the use of tanks in the streets, as was done in the past, it was carried out under the guise of "legality." A merely formal legality, which legitimized the hypocritical discourse, still used today by the coup plotters, that "the institutions are functioning." In fact, whenever someone says that "the institutions in Brazil are functioning," it's a sure sign. There you have a coup plotter, whether out of convenience, self-interest, omission, or cowardice.

On that May 12th, 2016, one message caught my attention. It was sent by my friend and journalist Laurez Cerqueira. It said something like this: "Don't be discouraged, today is just the beginning of the long march to regain democracy in Brazil." We are not discouraged, nor will we be. But I fear we are only at the beginning of the journey. And I don't know if Brazil will remain, neither as an idea, nor as a nation, nor even as a territory, after the coup perpetrated by the scoundrels four years ago.