Alexandre de Moraes, Brazil’s Supreme Court justice and president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), has launched two separate investigations. The first one is to track down and arrest the supporters of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro, who waged a violent attack on the evening of Dec. 12 in Brasilia, storming a police station, attacking buildings and burning dozens of vehicles, claiming that Bolsonaro was the victor in the Oct. 30 elections.
Second, De Moraes is investigating Bolsonaro himself for casting doubt on the result of the election, and abusing his power during the campaign to encourage “anti-democratic acts.” That is, promoting violent demonstrations in several states to demand that the military intervene to overturn the election and to carry out other violent acts of vandalism, road blockades, etc. Bolsonaro has admitted to friends that he expects to be arrested.
Yesterday, police began serving 81 search warrants in seven states targeting Bolsonaro supporters. De Moraes is targeting dozens of Bolsonaro’s prominent business backers who are suspected of financing violent demonstrations, the encampments set up by protesters outside military bases to demand a coup, road blockades, and similar actions. He is freezing bank accounts, lifting bank secrecy, etc. Nor is Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party too happy that it lost its appeal of a $4.2 million fine imposed on it by the TSE for claiming, without evidence, that Lula da Silva “stole” the Oct. 30 election through the use of defective electronic voting machines
President-elect Lula, meanwhile, has made strong statements blaming Bolsonaro for the violent protests and for “encouraging fascist activists out on the streets. He’s following the model that all fascists follow in the world,” Lula said. “It’s important for people to know that these are part of an extreme right-wing organization that doesn’t just exist in Brazil.”
