MARIA LUISA MENDONÇA: In 2016, there was a coup against President Dilma Rousseff. She was elected and then re-elected. And that was after Lula was elected and re-elected. So the Workers Party had been in power for four consecutive elections in Brazil and implementing a progressive agenda in the country’s social programs that were very popular. So the right-wing parties knew they could not win elections; they could not take power through a democratic process. So they orchestrated a coup – a parliamentary coup – against President Dilma Rousseff. And then they use an excuse saying that you know, she had committed some administrative crime. But the thing is her administration was doing something very common that all the previous administrations had done, which was to delay payments from the federal budget to the public banks to pay for special programs such as low income housing, for example. And most Brazilians don’t even understand the reason for the impeachment because people think that she was accused of corruption, but it had no case of corruption against her.
So the main reason for the impeachment was for the right-wing powers to take over the government and to command a conservative agenda to cut social programs, you know, to privatize public companies, to implement austerity measures in Brazil that were not popular. And then this year, former President Lula was leading the polls for the presidential elections that will happen in October – are supposed to happen. We don’t know what’s going to happen because it’s such political instability in the country now. And they also orchestrated a case against him saying that he received an apartment as a bribe. But there is no proof that he owns – he doesn’t own the apartment. He never spent any time in the apartment, so all the case was based on one testimony of a company executive or construction company executive that was in prison and had his sentence reduced from like 15 years to 3 years in exchange for accusing Lula. So, you know, now he’s in prison and he’s still very popular even after his arrest. If elections were today, he would win in all types of cases, of scenarios.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Lula is in prison. I’ve head there’s a protest encampment out in front of the prison building where he is now located. What is the future of the Workers Party and other progressive popular movements such as MST, the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil, as they confront a system that has veered very much hard, right over recent years?
MARIA LUISA MENDONÇA: In 2016, there was a coup against President Dilma Rousseff. She was elected and then re-elected. And that was after Lula was elected and re-elected. So the Workers Party had been in power for four consecutive elections in Brazil and implementing a progressive agenda in the country’s social programs that were very popular. So the right-wing parties knew they could not win elections; they could not take power through a democratic process. So they orchestrated a coup – a parliamentary coup – against President Dilma Rousseff. And then they use an excuse saying that you know, she had committed some administrative crime. But the thing is her administration was doing something very common that all the previous administrations had done, which was to delay payments from the federal budget to the public banks to pay for special programs such as low income housing, for example. And most Brazilians don’t even understand the reason for the impeachment because people think that she was accused of corruption, but it had no case of corruption against her.
So the main reason for the impeachment was for the right-wing powers to take over the government and to command a conservative agenda to cut social programs, you know, to privatize public companies, to implement austerity measures in Brazil that were not popular. And then this year, former President Lula was leading the polls for the presidential elections that will happen in October – are supposed to happen. We don’t know what’s going to happen because it’s such political instability in the country now. And they also orchestrated a case against him saying that he received an apartment as a bribe. But there is no proof that he owns – he doesn’t own the apartment. He never spent any time in the apartment, so all the case was based on one testimony of a company executive or construction company executive that was in prison and had his sentence reduced from like 15 years to 3 years in exchange for accusing Lula. So, you know, now he’s in prison and he’s still very popular even after his arrest. If elections were today, he would win in all types of cases, of scenarios.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Lula is in prison. I’ve head there’s a protest encampment out in front of the prison building where he is now located. What is the future of the Workers Party and other progressive popular movements such as MST, the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil, as they confront a system that has veered very much hard, right over recent years?
MARIA LUISA MENDONÇA: Yes, the social movements in Brazil face a great deal of repression now. Just a few days ago, this camp in front of the prison was attacked by gunmen. They shot at people when they were sleeping and two people got wounded. So, yeah, that is a serious track of repression; almost all types of mobilizations, protest face now police violence. And, we also had the case a little over a month ago of a congresswoman from Rio. Marielle Franco, who was assassinated with four bullets in the head and killed, so, you know, in addition to dozens of leaders of social movements, peasant movements, the Landless Workers Movements, who have been killed since last year.
So we see a great deal of repression in the countryside and in urban areas and also of social leaders, grassroots movements and also any type of protest against the coup. Usually the response is police repression, slaughter, impeachment of presidents and Dilma Rousseff, we realized that we could not trust any institutions in the country. The Supreme Court is part of the coup. Mainstream media outlets support the coup. It’s really difficult for people to mobilize. That’s why having international visibility is important.
