Tens of thousands of Brazilians marched against Jai …

From Brasilia. Democratic explosion in Brazil. Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in the avenues of São Paulo, Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, shouting “Out with Bolsonaro”, “Genocide” and “Vaccine in the arm and food on the plate”. The protests were replicated by hundreds of cities across the country this Saturday when the barrier of half a million deaths from Covid-19 was passed, according to official data which experts say is underreported: it It is possible that Brazil, the second country in the world in death, has reached 600,000 deaths. The health tragedy “has a name which is genocide, my solidarity with the Brazilian people,” tweeted Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. According to the social movements which, supported by the parties, they organized the marches, there were demonstrations in some 400 large and medium urban centers.

It was the second street demonstration against the regime since the start of the pandemic and, according to initial estimates, it would have been one of the busiest in recent years. What is beyond doubt is that in the concentrations of June 19, “19-J” and those of May 29, “29-M”, the opposition wrested the hegemony of public space. on the far right. The defense of democracy moves more than the phalanges of the coup, a coup perpetrated day after day by the measures of a government that advances towards totalitarianism. This is the Bolsonarista method.

Paulista Avenue, the main road in São Paulo, the country’s most important city, sold out eight blocks on Saturday evening, according to the UOL news site. “The Brazilian people cannot have the choice to die of Covid or to die of hunger, we will win this fight”, promised Raimundo Bomfim, coordinator of the Central of Popular Movements. The former presidential candidate of the Workers’ Party, Fernando Haddad and Guilherme Boulos, leader of the Homeless Movement, spoke on the avenue, which had its meeting point at the San Pablo Art Museum.

After the speeches, a good part of the audience continued to march towards Rossevelt Square, in the center of the city, where people continued to arrive in the early hours of the night. Young people, women, LGBT activists, trade unionists, activists of the black movement. It is the face of the democratic barrier. In the concentration of this Saturday more festive flags were seen than in that of May 29 last. Express politician Mariluce Moura, 70, held a sign reading “Generation of 68 still fighting. Bolsonaro out”. A young woman with a megaphone shouted “There will be no coup, there will be a fight”, in front of a column of the feminist movement in São Paulo.

Brasilia overflowing

Early in the morning, before ten in the morning, groups of indigenous people, some from the Amazon, began to gather in the center of Brasilia, observed with a hostile attitude by the police, some carrying firearms. Brazil’s militarized police are little less than Bolsonaro’s armed wing, rather than a state-serving security force. By noon, Brasilia was already taken by a crowd of trade unionists, students, party activists, women and natives, as well as ordinary citizens, who marched along Eje Monumental Avenue towards Congress.

To obstruct traffic, the police set up a picket line where participants were patted down on the pretext of preventing the entry of elements by force (contrary to the protocol applied in official acts where the security forces ensure the ‘escort of demonstrators). Another police cordon prevented the occupation of the Plaza de los Tres Poderes, in front of the Government Palace.

This June 19, according to the observation of Page 12, there was much more public than during the previous opposition demonstration on May 29. But in comparison with the last Bolsonarista rallies, this Saturday was clearly more crowded.

Brasilia, the city of power, where sit the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary, and the commandos of the armed forces (main party of the system), was dominated by the flags of the Workers’ Party, the Socialism and Freedom Party of the Communist Party and the landless rural workers.

At first glance, the clothes that were all the rage during the walk were the red T-shirts with Lula’s face on them. According to the experienced journalist, Luis Costa Pinto, of TV247, this concentration is the one that has gathered the most people in the federal capital since the festivities of January 1, 2003, when Lula took office.

A truck of the kind used in carnival parades, popularly called “Trío Eléctrico”, drove past columns in which virtually everyone wore masks, unlike right-wing rallies where few take cover as they underestimate the disease. From the top of the truck, equipped with very powerful speakers, an activist launched harangues in favor of impeachment and recalling the tragedy of the 500,000 killed by the Covid-19.

Another of the marks of these acts is the strong presence of the feminist movement and of women in general, something easy to perceive in the choirs improvised by the militancy where the timbre of the female voices predominates. By the way, the first protests that challenged Bolsonaro date back to 2018 with the feminist “El No” acts, which called for a vote against the captain.

On the other hand, the official processions are marked by war cries, martial, mainly pronounced by men. Something that we see in the motorbike caravans led by Bolsonaro, made up almost exclusively of men, perhaps police or military. A ritual that evokes those of Benito Mussolini in Rome in the 1930s.

Behind the demonstrators seen across the country lie millions of Brazilians who did not take to the streets, citizens belonging to a silent majority who are also fed up with the government, as polls published in May and June indicate. The number of “repentant” voters of Bolsonaro increases for bringing a crazy character to the Planalto.

In a fit of madness, or premeditated cynicism, Bolsonaro said on Friday in the Amazon with evangelical pastors that the vaccine is not a safe drug against the coronavirus, he denounced the use of chinstrap and recommended consuming hydroxychloroquine, a drug harmless to the Covid sold by laboratories that have political proximity to the regime (And according to rumors circulating in Brasilia, they would do business with the Clan formed by the president and his sons).

In Rio de Janeiro, as in Brasilia, the demonstration took place this Saturday morning. Thousands of people marched along popular Getulio Vargas Avenue in downtown Rio, not along the beaches of Copacabana, a residential area where Bolsonarism tends to be concentrated.

Batucada in London

“Bolsonaro Genocida” read a parade in central London hence the event coordinator, who introduced herself as Julia of the PT to the correspondent of the Jornalistas Books channel, expressed her solidarity with the protests in dozens of capitals in various countries. Brazilian activists in red T-shirts or bandanas spoke to the correspondent on a cold Saturday afternoon (This is what is deduced by the coats). A London adviser, of Ecuadorian origin, demanded that Bolsonaro be prosecuted and jailed. Behind the voice of the municipal councilor is heard a batucada.

From Zurich, Brazilian Sandra, coordinator of the Stop Bolsonaro movement, reported for TV 247 that until noon this Saturday, Brasilia time, around fifty events had taken place around the world. In several concentrations, Bolsonaro had to be sued by the International Penal Court (ICC) for genocide. Last week the newspaper San Pablo State, wrote that the occupant of the Planalto Palace is worried about the possibility that a case will be substantiated before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The issue also worries the former Israeli minister, Benjamin netanyahu, an ally of Brasilia, who told the Brazilian ambassador in Tel Aviv that when Bolsonaro leaves the government, he could end up being prosecuted in The Hague, according to a telegram received by the foreign ministry to which the press had access.