2016: The year of the coup against the people, Brazil, and democracy.
"The year is coming to an end and 2016 will surely go down in history as the year of betrayal. Against Brazil, the people, and democracy. And it began much earlier, from the announcement of the 2014 election results when the losers began the conspiracy and preparation of the parliamentary, judicial, and media coup that was carried out in 2016," says an editorial from the Vermelho portal, regarding the coup against Dilma.
Editorial of the Red Portal - The year is coming to an end, and 2016 will surely go down in history as the year of betrayal. Against Brazil, its people, and democracy. And it began long before, with the announcement of the 2014 election results, when the losers started the conspiracy and preparation for the parliamentary, judicial, and media coup that was carried out in 2016.
The coup conspiracy that brought the illegitimate and unelected Michel Temer to the presidency of the Republic sabotaged the government of Dilma Rousseff, paralyzed the National Congress, prevented the adoption of fundamental measures for the continuity of development, and is at the root of the serious crisis that is crumbling the economy and led, in 2016, to the catastrophic number of over 12 million unemployed, with projections to grow even more in 2017.
This is perhaps the main image of the coup carried out in 2016, the cost of which falls entirely on the shoulders of the workers.
The coup plotters' objective became clear with the measures announced since Michel Temer took over the government on May 12, 2016. One of these measures was to sabotage Operation Lava Jato in order to protect the politicians who promoted and directed the coup.
Another objective is to cut government investments, eliminate the constitutional obligation to invest in health and education, implement reactionary changes in secondary education, privatize state-owned companies essential for the country's development, hand over the pre-salt oil reserves, and subject Petrobras to the interests of imperialism.
This right-wing program, which has taken control of the government, is aimed at paralyzing national development and guaranteeing the payment of exorbitant interest to rentier and speculative financial capital.
Making the government a hostage of this rentier and speculative capital – this is the policy that the coup plotters have put into action since the very first moments of seizing power.
The takeover of the government began to take shape on April 17th when the nation watched, horrified, as the Chamber of Deputies session initiated the impeachment process against elected President Dilma Rousseff.
The betrayal was clearly outlined there in stark colors, which, even then, shook many sectors of the population who had supported the coup but then realized the deception underway.
On May 12, the legitimate president was removed from office and the rejected Michel Temer took her place, initiating an interim period until Dilma's definitive removal on August 31, and the completion of the coup.
The hideous face of the coup had already been underway since May 12th, with the unceremonious way in which the coup government changed not only the composition of the ministry but, mainly, the radical and conservative reversal of the economic orientation that came to command the federal government and imposed the return of the old and predatory policy of favoring only the very rich.
Alarming unemployment was not the only result - thousands of companies were rendered unviable and went bankrupt. States and municipalities collapsed (the most striking example being Rio de Janeiro) and popular revolt deepened.
If 2016 was the year of defeat and betrayal of Brazil and Brazilians, it was also the year of enormous rejection against the illegitimate Temer and the coup plotters, reflected in the almost unanimous condemnation recorded in opinion polls.
And in the tenacious and growing resistance against the coup plotters, which marked 2016. And it became widespread as a popular and democratic counterpoint to those who, having seized power, could not proclaim their victory but, on the contrary, face the struggle of students (and the occupations of schools), workers, trade unionists, intellectuals, of all those who defend democracy and social progress.
And they did not falter or surrender, and they point to 2017 as a year of even greater growth in the struggle to put Brazil back on the path of development, job creation, income distribution, and defense of national sovereignty. If the year that is ending was marked by defeat, the year that is beginning will be one of intensified struggle and the conquest of victory for the people and democracy.