Editorial: Brazil capital riot - US election denialism exported

Forensic investigators are framed by a cracked window damaged when supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the Brazilian Supreme Court building, in Brasilia. Photo / AP

EDITORIAL:

The storming of Brazil’s main government buildings this week raises some uneasy questions, because of the way it clearly seemed a copycat of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol two years ago.

Is this a “manual” for attacks on democratic symbols that might be repeated? Are anti-government rioters brimming over with grievances just as likely to be influenced by overseas actions and ideas as their homegrown ones? Could swifter action by US authorities in Washington in 2021 have deterred Brazilian far-right militants from thinking they should have a go?

America and Brazil are different countries and cultures with divergent experiences with democracy.

Brazil had a two-decades-long military dictatorship from the mid-1960s.

But former President Jair Bolsonaro modelled himself on former US President Donald Trump, they had close ties, and both raised unfounded claims of election fraud, motivating their hardcore supporters.

False information, alternative realities and conspiracy theories were a key part of turning these people into political mobs. Bolsonaro cast doubt on electronic voting machines. People over-running the seat of power had a demand: “We want the source code.”

Bolsonaro lost an election last October. While he had mostly gone quiet since, some of his supporters held protests. In Brasilia, supporters camped outside army headquarters for more than two months demanding the military overturn the election.

Protesters, supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, on the roof of the National Congress building after storming through. Photo / Eraldo Peres, AP

There was extensive organising on social media for the attack on the presidential palace, congress and supreme court on Monday NZT. Dozens of buses were corralled to bring people to Brasilia for it.

As in Washington, people caused extensive damage and looted items. They filmed themselves wandering through offices, and put up videos of themselves online. In both cases, there were wild claims that left-wingers pretending to be right-wingers were responsible for the damage.

The Brazilian script was clearly ripped from the earlier US pages.

“The US example of election denying and creating alternative facts, and radicalising law enforcement, and of openly disparaging democratic institutions was a template that I don’t think Bolsonaro et al would have come up with on their own,” Scott Hamilton, a former US diplomat to Brazil told AP.

There were also differences.

The US was going through a transition period between administrations, whereas Bolsonaro had been replaced and was in the US. In Brasilia, the buildings were mostly empty on a Sunday local time, whereas the Capitol was filled with politicians and staff on January 6, 2021.

Bolsonaro took several hours to distance himself publicly from the protesters’ actions but he eventually did so. His party publicly criticised the assault, and whatever its sympathies, the military ended the occupation. Although 49 per cent of voters supported Bolsonaro in the last election, a poll found 18.4 per cent of Brazilians backed the rioters. A counter-demonstration against the uprising was held on Wednesday.

Security forces took a while to get on top of the situation, but protesters were rounded up and hundreds were arrested on the day. That has stretched to at least 1500 people, and the government is targeting those who led and financed the operation.

The capital has been placed under federal security control, and the pro-Bolsonaro governor of the district has been suspended because local police failed to prevent rioters from taking control. Warrants were issued for two security officials.

This urgent response is a marked change to how January 6 was dealt with in the US where insurrectionists were allowed to wander off home and the process of punishing people who took part has been far more sedate. So far, of the pro-Trump rioters, about 950 have been charged.

A video of rioters outside the US Capitol is screened during a hearing held by the US House select committee investigating the January 6 attack. Photo / Kenny Holston, The New York Times, File

Republican officials who publicly stirred them on are still there and 2020 election-denialism is an article of faith amongst an influential section of the party. Donald Trump, despite a congressional inquiry recommending four charges, has yet to face them. He could still become his party’s nominee for president in 2024.

Public anger at what happened was not mobilised at the time, seemingly in order to not stir unrest amid political polarisation. Perhaps that caution, and time taken to build legal cases, emboldened the Brazilian rioters when they considered January 6. There were no immediate high-profile consequences. While the Capitol attack failed, it had a twisted impact on top of all the pandemic trauma.

While figures like Trump and Bolsonaro can give these movements focus and shape, they essentially involve people taken in by disinformation and slogans that play on how they view the world.

The Brazilian riot is further evidence that in recent years the US has been a leading creator and exporter of conspiracy theories plus anti-democratic rhetoric and tactics, with US-based social media platforms as a conduit.

These include the anti-vaccination, anti-mask, anti-government backlash protests in Canada, Australia, parts of Europe and also here.

The protests at parliament in Wellington were a sudden security challenge. With an election this year, there’s no excuse for complacency.