Pepper: Brazil is being governed by crisis.

247 - Federal deputy Paulo Pimenta warns that Brazil is being governed by crisis. Pimenta says that Bolsonaro's voters don't know what to expect because they never knew who they voted for, and that these diffuse expectations confuse the political landscape. He says, "Governed by crisis. This is perhaps the expression that best defines the first 30 days of the far-right's adventure at the head of the executive branch of the largest economy in Latin America."

Read the full article by Paulo Pimenta: 

Governed by the crisis
Paulo Pimenta
Leader of the PT (Workers' Party) caucus in the Chamber of Deputies

Governed by crisis. This is perhaps the expression that best defines the first 30 days of the far-right's adventure at the helm of the executive branch of Latin America's largest economy. To meet the diffuse expectations of a broad electoral base that has not yet had the opportunity or means to learn about – and therefore demand – a government program for the next four years, the new occupants of the Palácio do Planalto (Presidential Palace) have staged a variety show to keep the audience's attention fixed, while they operate at all speed on the agenda of systematically destroying the rights guaranteed by the 88 Constitution and handing over national assets.

The charlatans unfolded, drawing on initiatives from the President and his vice-president, the foreign minister, the ministers of education, justice, environment, and human rights, and the exceptional contribution of the captain's sons. The Davos debacle; the guava tree and the pink and blue of the Minister of Family; the Embassy in Jerusalem, which probably didn't earn applause from the chicken vendors to Arab countries; the bellicose rhetoric against Venezuela that failed to enthuse the military leadership firmly entrenched in the government. And Fabrício, who failed to appear before the Public Prosecutor's summons but instead danced in his hospital room—all these events occupied the public eye and attention for several days.

It is noticeable that there is an agile and efficient management of the industrial-scale production of lies (fake news) with the tactic of affirmation and prompt denial to escape any questioning from citizens who demand qualified information that deserves some semblance of credibility, in a dizzying rush forward.

This mechanism, which functioned spectacularly during the electoral process, continues to be used as a relevant tool in the relationship between the government and society. This means that "This madness has method..." (Hamlet). However, to sustain its own game, it requires the production of a crisis every week to cover up the effects of the immediately preceding crisis. How long will this continue?
The conflict of interest opened by the President himself against the conventional media that supported the 2016 coup has repositioned some large groups in relation to the new government in just a few days, particularly the Marinho family, but also, albeit for different reasons, the Folha, Estadão, and Abril groups. Applauding the government are the Record group – the new official media outlet (possibly associated with CNN) – and Silvio Santos. This conflict revolves around the distribution of public funds for social communication, in the case of free-to-air television, the well-known BV (bonus volume), which gives Globo enormous advantages over its competitors.

With the conflict underway, the affected families turned their guns on what, in those days, seemed to be the most vulnerable link in the government: Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Society became more widely informed about the captain's family's traditional and notorious ties to the militias, that is, a facet of organized crime in Rio de Janeiro; about the existence of the driver Fabrício Queiroz, for whom the Senator apparently acted as a spokesperson while serving in the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly; and about the curious – though not unprecedented – system of payments made through bank deposits at the ALERJ's own ATMs.

A comfortable agenda, focused on combating corruption, is maintained by the media to tarnish the image of newcomers and lead them to negotiate an agreement on the distribution of funds, in addition to avoiding the proper treatment of the substantive issues of the ultraneoliberal agenda that deals with the abolition of workers' rights, on which there is no conflict whatsoever between the government's initiatives and the viewpoints of the major media groups: pension reform, labor rights, vacations, 13th-month salary, etc.

Moving on to the sensitive topic of violence, Brazil urgently needs clarification on whether the main occupants of the Palácio do Planalto (Presidential Palace) truly represent the interests of organized crime and militias. The decree of January 15th regulates gun ownership, modifying articles of Decree 5.123/2004 to facilitate access to firearms in a country that has recorded an average of 62 murders per year over the last 10 years. The enactment of the decree, fifteen days after the inauguration, sheds light on the institutional process that resulted in this regulation for a wider public opinion: the manufacturer organizes its finances to invest in electoral campaigns for the legislative and executive branches. For some years now, it has elected what is known in Congress as the "Bullet Caucus." He contributes his chosen individuals to the composition of the government elected in 2018 and "advises" on the drafting of the Decree in the first days of government, before the more conscious sectors of society become aware of the nefarious prospect that is looming.

With the easing of gun ownership laws, institutionalized by the Presidential Decree, the company reaps two results: a boom in stock market sales and an expansion of business opportunities in its market. A no less relevant byproduct: with reduced controls under the law, militias can legally assemble their arsenals to carry out their work in the peripheries and favelas of large metropolitan areas, extorting the population forced to live amidst an apparent civil war of all against all. Thus, Brazil institutionalizes and gleefully embarks on its war of extermination against the poor.

The election of Rodrigo Maia and Davi Alcolumbre to the leadership of the two Houses of Congress takes the country back to the dark times of ARENA, curiously at the hands of a group of forces that loudly proclaim their departure from "old politics." The victory signals the government's protection in parliament, the breathing room to undertake reforms, particularly the dismantling of the public pension system in Brazil, although it does not automatically guarantee its approval in the terms proposed by Paulo Guedes.
The initial content of the proposal announces the need for 40 years of contributions for the insured to receive the full benefit and equalizes the retirement age for men and women at 65 years. In addition, it creates the Capitalization System used in Chile by the Pinochet government, where it achieved its goal: the impoverishment of the insured and an increase in the number of suicides among the elderly in that country. Objectively, the captain's government is not presenting a reform proposal but a destruction of Public Social Security in Brazil, for the benefit of the national and international financial system.

The Justice Minister's anti-crime package defines the framework for the police state that the government wishes to impose on the country to enable the neoliberal agenda in the short term and, in the long term, guarantee the conversion of Brazil into a vast archipelago of neocolonies under the control of large oil companies, mining companies, timber exploiters, and companies that wish to take control of the largest water reserves on the planet.
Thus, the Minister of Justice repositions himself in the internal government dispute that is beginning, after a grueling month for the image of anti-corruption champion that he seeks to project to the country. He spent January dodging questions about the Flávio-Queiroz duo. The anti-crime package re-enacts measures proposed and rejected by the very coup-plotting base of the previous government, to institutionalize the methods of Operation Lava Jato, which are foreign to the Brazilian justice system, known for being unconstitutional and arbitrary – “For exceptional situations, exceptional remedies...”

The attacks on public education through the proposed militarization of schools, the announced regulation of homeschooling which violates constitutional principles of the right of all to education and of children and adolescents, restricting opportunities and affecting the poorest most directly; the withdrawal of inclusion policies from basic and higher education, the hunt for so-called "cultural Marxism"; the resumption of the "School Without Parties" movement and the explicit defense by the Minister of a university for the elites demonstrates that the captain's government intends to create a generation of sub-citizens with reduced access to knowledge and cultural goods, ideologically molded for submission and subservience, thus contributing to deepening the country's historical inequalities.

The environmental crime caused by the negligence and corporate irresponsibility of Vale do Rio Doce, privatized during Fernando Henrique's government, has become a metaphor for what awaits us if the policies advocated by the Bolsonaro government regarding environmental safety and control standards are applied. These policies are anchored by the mining companies' lobby and led by Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, who is subordinate to the interests of the new Ministry of Agriculture, headed by Minister Teresa Cristina, whose arrival signals the end of the demarcation of indigenous and quilombola lands in favor of agribusiness.

And the judiciary, which continues to act politically, has taken it upon itself to star in one of the most shameful episodes in any society that considers itself civilized, by denying, through verbal and administrative contortions, President Lula's right to attend the funeral of his older brother. It continues to offer the country and the world the lamentable image of an institution that has succumbed to cowardice and pettiness, violating the constitutional right of a citizen who, even persecuted and imprisoned during the military dictatorship, was able to exercise this right by burying his mother.

The return of the President to the Albert Einstein Hospital to undergo the surgery announced upon his return from Davos, and the decision to shorten his convalescence and resume his routine duties days later, indicates a degree of tension and distrust regarding the Vice President. As the post-operative condition apparently did not progress as desired, the feeling is that the country is plunging into limbo; the President is not physically able to govern, and the Vice President cannot assume the presidency due to the mistrust that has arisen in these first 30 days of government. The hospital may have been a good refuge to avoid the exhausting exposure of a candidate insecure in conducting himself in debates during the election campaign. Perhaps it is not the most suitable office to lead a government. Apparently, we will continue to be governed by crisis.

Brasilia, February 07, 2019