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Lula slams far-right ‘terrorism’ as Brazil clears protest camps

Photo: MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP

January 9th | By AFP | Ramon Sahmkow |

Brazilian security forces cleared protest camps Monday and arrested 1,500 people as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned “acts of terrorism” after a far-right mob stormed the seat of power, unleashing chaos on the capital.

Hundreds of soldiers and police mobilized to dismantle an improvised camp outside the army’s headquarters in Brasilia, where some 3,000 supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro had set up tents — used as a base for the sea of protesters who ran riot inside the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court for around four hours Sunday.

Lula, who took office on January 1 after a bitterly divisive election win over Bolsonaro, returned to work in the pillaged presidential palace, where AFP reporters saw the wreckage that remained of the previous day’s havoc: trashed artwork and offices, shattered windows and doors, broken glass strewn across the floor, and furniture dragged into a reflecting pool.

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Lula, the 77-year-old veteran leftist who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, met with the leaders of both houses of Congress and the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and joined them in condemning what many called the South American country’s version of the Capitol riots in Washington two years ago.

“The three powers of the republic, the defenders of democracy and the constitution, reject the terrorist acts and criminal, coup-mongering vandalism that occurred,” they said in a joint statement.

Bolsonaro, who narrowly lost the October elections, was meanwhile hospitalized with abdominal pains, his wife said. 

Media reports said the ex-president was admitted to hospital in Orlando, Florida, where the politician dubbed the “Tropical Trump” traveled on the second-to-last day of his term — snubbing Lula’s inauguration, in a break with tradition.

It was the latest in a series of health problems stemming from a stabbing attack that nearly claimed Bolsonaro’s life during his winning 2018 presidential campaign.

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Bolsonaro, 67, took to Twitter Sunday night to condemn the “pillaging” in Brasilia, but rejected Lula’s claim he incited the attacks, and defended the right to “peaceful protests.”

‘Traces of Trumpism’

Large contingents of riot police deployed to lock down the capital’s Three Powers Square, home to the iconic modernist buildings that serve as the headquarters of the three branches of government.

Many Brasilia residents were still in shock as they returned to their normal workday routines.

“People have the right to express their opinions, but not destroy our national heritage,” 43-year-old resident Ionar Bispo told AFP.

Condemnation continued to pour in from around the world, with Pope Francis criticizing the unrest as a sign of “weakening of democracy” in the Americas.

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In a joint statement ahead of summit talks in Mexico City, US President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the attacks and said they “stand with Brazil as it safeguards its democratic institutions.”

Many drew the inevitable comparison to January 6, 2021, when supporters of then-US president Donald Trump invaded the Capitol in a violent, failed bid to stop Congress from certifying his election loss.

Spain’s foreign minister said the attacks in Brasilia bore “traces of Trumpism,” and echoed condemnation from the United Nations and European Union.

But Brazilian Justice Minister Flavio Dino said there were “two key differences” between the attacks on Brasilia and Washington: “we had zero deaths, and more people were arrested.”

Investigation begins 

Lula, who was in the southeastern city of Araraquara visiting a flood-hit region when the riot started, signed a decree Sunday declaring a federal intervention in Brasilia, giving his government special powers over the local police force to restore law and order in the capital.

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His government vowed to find and arrest those who planned and financed the attacks.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes suspended Brasilia Governor Ibaneis Rocha, a Bolsonaro ally, from his post for 90 days, on grounds of “criminal negligence.”

The ruling came just after Rocha himself fired the capital’s public security chief, Anderson Torres, who previously served as Bolsonaro’s justice minister.

The attorney general’s office said it had asked the Supreme Court to issue arrest warrants for Torres “and all other public officials responsible for acts and omissions” leading to the unrest.

Moraes also ordered the security forces to disperse anti-government protests outside military bases nationwide.

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Hardline Bolsonaro supporters have been protesting outside army barracks calling for a military intervention to keep Lula from power since his election win.

Following the ruling, soldiers and police broke up camps in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, as well as Brasilia.

Lula narrowly won the October 30 runoff election by a score of 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent.

Bolsonaro has alleged he is the victim of a conspiracy against him by Brazil’s courts and electoral authorities.

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International

Venezuela claims that the US seeks to ignore and delegitimize the presidential elections

The Government of Venezuela affirmed that the United States is trying to ignore and delegitimize the presidential elections of next July 28, after the Joe Biden Administration asked for the participation of all anti-Chavist candidates who wish to do so.

“Venezuela categorically rejects the statement of March 27, 2024 of the United States Government in which, finally, the heads of the operation against Venezuela show their face, as owners of a circus that tries to ignore and delegitimize the next presidential elections,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement published in X.

He argued that the United States intends to minimize the participation of 37 “political forces” at the national level, “which, covering the broad ideological spectrum that exists in the country, registered 13 presidential candidacies, including 12 that identify themselves as opposition.”

The Venezuelan Executive stated that it has fully complied with the legal regulations and with “every point” of the Barbados Agreement to hold the presidential elections.

“In the face of this new claim of the State Department, to take the path of extremism against Venezuelan democracy, Bolivarian dignity will make them fail again and again,” he said.

On Wednesday, the United States insisted on the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, to allow the participation in the July 28 elections of all opposition candidates who wish to do so.

The Biden Administration thus reiterated its position on the disqualification of the main opposition candidate, María Corina Machado, and the impossibility of her formation, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), to register the academic Corina Yoris as a replacement.

“The acceptance by the CNE of only those opposition candidates with whom Maduro and his representatives feel comfortable goes against competitive and inclusive elections,” warned the spokesman of the State Department, Matthew Miller.

Faced with the difficulties of the opposition platform to nominate a candidate, the Governments of Brazil and Colombia, allies of the Venezuelan, expressed their concern about what happened on Tuesday.

The PUD reported on the same Tuesday that it managed to register, provisionally, Edmundo González Urrutia, who may be replaced from next April 1, as long as he does not have any administrative sanction or impediment.

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International

Palestinian Prime Minister chosen by hand by Abbas presents new government with 22 ministers

The Palestinian Prime Minister, economist Mohamad Mustafa, presented on Thursday to President Mahmud Abbas the composition of a new government with 22 ministers, including at least three women, and in which he himself will head the Foreign Affairs portfolio.

“The Prime Minister-designate, Muhamad Mustafa, presented the work program and the composition of the government to President Mahmud Abbas,” the official Wafa news agency reported today, “consequently, the president issued a decree law giving confidence to the nineteenth government and issued a decree approving its formation.”

The new cabinet will take an oath this Sunday, March 31, and in its program one of the priorities is the Gaza Strip, including a plan to increase access to humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of the enclave, as well as create a stable Palestinian Authority, since it has been dejured by the majority of Palestinians for years.

Mustafa will hold the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs, replacing Riyad Al Malki; while Zyad Mahmoud Mohamed will serve as Minister of the Interior and Omar Akram Al Bitar, former Middle East executive of one of the world’s major consulting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be Minister of Finance.

Sharhabel Yusef Sad Edin will serve as Minister of Justice and Majid Awni Mohamed Abu Ramadan in Health, according to the official list. Among the ministers Mona Muhamad Mahmoud al Jalili will lead the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Ahed Faeq Atef Bseiso, will be in charge of Public Works and Housing. Samah Abdel Rahim Hussein Hamad will be Minister of Social Development.

On March 14, President Abás appointed Mustafa as prime minister of the ANP, which controls the occupied territory of the West Bank in a fragmented way, and commissioned him to form a new government after the resignation two weeks before the entire cabinet along with the then prime minister, Mohamed Shtayeh.

Shatyeh’s resignation was understood as part of Abas’ efforts to reform the ANP with a technocratic government that can take control of the Gaza Strip when the war ends in the Palestinian enclave, something that is in the US future plans but not in those of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The ANP ruled in the Gaza Strip until 2007, when Hamas forcibly took power from the enclave after failing the attempts of a government of national unity with Fatah, after the Islamist group won in the 2006 legislative elections.

Although weakened and without any influence in Gaza – in December 2023 60% of Palestinians supported the dissolution of the ANP and 92% the resignation of Abas, according to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research – the ANP is the only entity accepted by Israel and a large part of the international community as an interlocutor of the Palestinians.

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International

Changing the time has an impact on the economy and your health: this entity asks to end the measure in the EU

The non-profit organization Time Use Initiative (TUI), which promotes the right to time around the world, demands an end to the time change in Europe in the electoral programs that will be presented for the next elections in the European Parliament (June 9).

The entity, according to a statement issued on Monday, defends the end of this measure because changing the clocks to an incorrect time zone “negatively affects individual and collective health, as well as the economy.”

During the last 30 years, he adds, “it has been shown that living in the wrong time zones has a negative impact on energy savings, on the risk of cancer and other diseases, on the performance of workers and students, or on GDP, among other issues.”

Specifically, according to TUI, 20% of European citizens and 34% of women with children “suffer from time poverty,” which means “affects both individual well-being and social cohesion.”

The roadmap set out in the EU Manifesto focuses especially on sectors that may experience a greater impact, such as emergency and transport services, and includes a public awareness campaign.

The platform’s request, whose main objective is to encourage public debate on how to collectively organize time to improve the well-being of citizens, coincides with the time change on European clocks on March 31.

According to the entity’s statement, ending the seasonal time change for 2026 is one of the 12 measures included in the EU Manifesto on time policies promoted by TUI to guarantee the right to time in Europe.

According to TUI, the fact that no changes have been implemented in this aspect responds to “beliefs and myths about the need to maintain daylight saving time that persist between public opinion and political debate.”

Three examples:

One of those myths, in the opinion of this entity, is that daylight saving time saves energy.

The platform responds that this “could be spending more energy, given the current consumption patterns, which increase the expenditure on cooling and heating.”

Another myth that TUI points out is that the end of the time change could harm the economy, especially certain sectors such as tourism, leisure or retail trade.

With regard to this argument, experts mention issues such as that the current configuration already causes lack of sleep and, therefore, less productivity and work accidents, or that it is not daylight saving time, but summer and good weather that drive tourism and leisure.

And a third myth: the belief that ending time changes means changing daily habits.

TUI mentions the argument of the International Alliance for Natural Time (IANT), which assures that, since habits are already constant throughout the year in terms of time, they can remain the same.

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