By VINÍCIO CARRILHO MARTINEZ*

Mistakenly, it was thought that Bolsonarism was just a factor party politician

There are well-known criminal triads involved in drug, arms and human trafficking – which is better left unnamed. After all, in addition to unnecessary propaganda and the risk inherent in exposure, what matters to us directly is Brazil and the triad that acted on January 8, 2023. unintelligence called fanaticism. And this is the essential order to be observed.

We have a certain principle of the trinity at the base of the modern State and the rule of law, which should be recovered in order to assess the real situation of the country, in which a fascist political project was projected (MARTINEZ, 2020). These trinities are: “people, territory, sovereignty” – for the modern state – and rule of law, guarantee and enjoyment of fundamental rights, separation of powers, for the rule of law. As far as there is a republican trinity defining the general principles of law: honest live (live honestly), alterum non laedere (do not harm others), suum cuique tribuere (give each one what belongs to him). In other words, the Republic was also threatened with death, this past January 8th.

Republic is the political regime[I] in which those exercising political functions (executive and legislative) represent the people and decide on their behalf, doing so with responsibility, electiveness and through periodically renewable mandates [...] responsibility. Electivity is an instrument of representation. Periodicity ensures fidelity to mandates and enables alternation in power. Responsibility is the pledge of the suitability of popular representation (ATALIBA, 2004, p. 13).

As seen, all republican characteristics were being attacked, however, on January 8th, they tried to produce lethal wounds – and they almost succeeded. The evil triad invested heavily against all the trinities of the civilizing process.

We can say that these civilizational trinities have been suffering insistently since 2019 (or 2016, with the coup d'état). These trinities were put to the test in the offensive of the terrorist acts on January 8 of this year. The terrorist aggression against the Three Constituted Powers institutes, from the perspective of the modern State, a severe conspiracy action and involved in the most serious crime of sedition. That is why it is also said that this coup was projected beyond the prepared State of Defense (by the former Secretary of Public Security of the Federal District) - it was not limited to attacking the newly sworn-in presidency, since it signaled a strong shock to the support of the State of law: the attacks on the legitimately constituted power, in 2022, leaned under a true proposition of sedition, being disruptive to the separation of powers, that is, a crime against the Republic.

However, it is necessary to be clear that fascism has been orbiting us since the post-2016 period (or before, already seen in 2013, in the student revolts), and was instituted as a political project between (2018) 2019-2022: the Nazi signals, in the hosts of recently defeated power, they illustrated the lack of ethics in the elaboration of fascist, racist, supremacist, misogynist aesthetics. This project, as we know, had the objective of “destroying the country in order to build later” – destroying citizenship, democracy, human dignity, in order to rebuild itself as an autocratic, disruptive, properly fascist project. The non-treatment of COVID-19 is an example of a programmed genocide (crime against humanity), as well as the destruction of culture and public education, in addition to so many humanitarian atrocities, are the tip of the iceberg of the fascist political project.

Mistakenly, Bolsonarism was thought to be just a party-political factor and, moreover, it came to formulate an understanding that “at most” there would be a civil ritualization of “our fascism”: how many said that the country was not fascist and that only brought together “a few fascist elements?”. A misconception, as the traits were clear before 2018 (2016) and worsened between 2019-2022: the rise of the armed forces in public institutions – in addition to the encampments at HQs, the engagement of the Military Police and the very articulation of military personnel in the our “afternoon of the crystals”, on the 8th of January, bring excessive evidence that national fascism is militaristic.

The coup d'état has always been on the agenda – which began in 2014, when the loser publicly and institutionally questioned the electoral system. This practice, which appeared in 2022, even more so in the second round, therefore, was not exactly new – but a recurrence. The same coup typology that would be brought to the 8th of January, albeit with another modus operandi, since the coup was present in the structures of the entire public security system, starting with the Institutional Security Office (GSI) – and not only in the comparison of the district Public Security and the Military Police of the Federal District. The embarrassment and the attacks were much more forceful, as we saw in the “State of Defense draft” retrieved from the house of the former Secretary of Public Security, with a forecast of a direct attack on the Superior Electoral Court (TSE): it was proposed to break secrecy of magistrates.

They also evaluated the coup plotters that the Federal Supreme Court (STF) would decide for the inapplicability of these measures (breaking TSE secrecy), based on the unconstitutionality of the very decree of the State of Defense and, thus, the said article 142 of CF88 (of terrible wording ) would be triggered by the former president, placing the Army as the balance sheet for the coup: as a “moderating power”.

In the coup excrescence, therefore, the Republic would cease to exist in the face of the ill-fated instrument of the period of the Empire. The coup of the 8th of January was fast moving towards becoming imperial fascism – under the instrumentality of a disruptive moderating power. And this is perhaps the irony of ironies, because the moderating power would be used in the first mission (coup leader) not to arbitrate, but to destroy the Republic and democracy.

As everyone also knows, the modus operandi of terrorism aimed at the removal of the newly sworn government, the vehicle would be the chaos they wanted to create from the attacks on public property, along with the buildings of the Planalto Palace, the Federal Supreme Court and the National Congress. It is obvious that the objective of these terrorist attacks was not limited to breaking and perforating works by Portinari and Di Cavalcanti – even though the symbology of attacking national culture is a notorious characteristic of fascism. The objective of these destructive actions was the complete disruption of democratic institutions and the very trinity that makes up the rule of law and the Republic.

It is clear that all the crimes that have already been or can be listed are very serious, however, the unachieved objective was even more serious. It is enough for us to think, in this sequence, if whoever attacks the Three Powers in a continuous act does not share the sedition?

From a legal point of view, the commission of crimes against the democratic rule of law, against public property, is more than evident; in the field of culture, we see that the destruction of works of art wanted to reach the national culture itself; in the sense of political science and theories of the State, attacking the Three Powers, in addition to the denial of popular sovereignty in the 2022 presidential election, sought to annihilate republican institutionality, articulating itself in a crime of sedition, that is, against national sovereignty – and in this last aspect, military law could be used in the investigation of crimes against national integrity. Would the terrorists, their principals and financiers be traitors to the Brazilian nation or not?

Finally, the list of culpability – made up of several crimes that already reach more than 1300 involved, and still in the investigation/investigation phase – has the possibility of reaching the president, and in this case we would probably have a former president arrested for terrorism: already indicted, in the STF and on the recommendation of the PGR (Attorney General of the Republic).[ii] If sufficient evidence comes to be constituted, very likely, Brazil will go down in history as the first country to condemn and imprison a former ruler for terrorist acts.[iii] There is no news that anyone has already done so: the US has been trying to advance in this regard for two years, but still without success.

This set, which, in theory, is a matter for blame in the face of political history, may indeed become a crime against the homeland, under the reach of military courts – if and when, of course, the same military personnel participating in the coup d’état/ terrorism are identified, tried, convicted and removed from their command.

In general, it is not difficult to visualize the fascist attempt as the host of the crime of sedition, of lesa patria. As is known, the penalties here can be aggravated with the cost of life. Another conclusion, unfortunately, points to the continuity of fanaticism in support of fascist, coup, terrorist acts. It is true that the majority of the population disapproved of the anti-republican savagery, however, it is necessary to respond to the people that there will be no amnesty.

*Vinicio Carrilho Martinez He is a professor at the Department of Education at UFSCar.

References

ATALIBA, Geraldo. Republic and Constitution. Sao Paulo, Malheiros, 2004.

MARTINEZ, Vinicius Carrilho. National Fascism – Necrofascism. Curitiba: Brazil Publishing, 2020.

Notes

[I] In this case, political regime and form of government are not very far apart.

[ii] https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2023/01/13/moraes-inclui-bolsonaro-em-inquerito-sobre-autoria-de-atos-golpistas.htm.

[iii] https://noticias.uol.com.br/colunas/walter-maierovitch/2023/01/13/bolsonaro-responsabilizacao-atos-golpistas.htm.

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