Brazil, stage of the most recent
pro-fascist subversion of global neoliberalism
|
O artigo Operação
Condor, Parte II da autoria de José Goulão, publicado em 1 de Novembro de 2018 no AbrilAbril, é importante.
Analisa o que aconteceu no Brasil – a subversão pró-fascista conduzida
pelos serviços secretos dos EE.UU. com o apoio das oligarquias brasileiras
que levou à eleição do fantoche fascista Jair Bolsonaro – à luz da ofensiva
mundial do neoliberalismo. Trata-se de um artigo tanto mais importante
quanto, baseados em muitos artigos e sites que consultámos de vários países, parece-nos
que muitos na esquerda (inclusive brasileiros) falharam em perceber
devidamente a evolução política no Brasil, as suas implicações, e a actual
tendência do capitalismo neoliberal de privilegiar soluções pró-fascistas.
Soluções que com o aprofundamento da crise do capitalismo, estão sempre a
um passo de se tornarem fascistas. Por isso mesmo, parece bastante irrelevante a
conversa fútil numa parte da esquerda sobre se Bolsonaro é fascista, ou só
(!) de extrema-direita ou populista. Muitos ditadores fascistas começaram
como populistas. A máscara que usam muda de acordo com circunstâncias
concretas, com a correlação de forças. Além disso, não se pode esperar que, para
além de um núcleo básico de características, todos os fascismos sejam iguais
e que, nos tempos actuais, o fascismo seja ou deva ser o mesmo dos anos 30. E
certamente a esquerda não deveria continuar a perder tempo em conversas
fúteis ao invés de agir, mobilizar os trabalhadores, os democratas, contra o
perigo que existe, que está aí e deve ser confrontado.
Imaginemos que
se mantêm as palavras moles, que se continua a chamar Trumps, Temers, Bolsonaros,
Macris, etc., de populistas. Que se continua com análises muito eruditas
sobre se são populistas ou algo diferente. Que tira o trabalhador comum de
tudo isso? Primeiro, que a esquerda não tem a certeza do que são; segundo,
que eles podem ser, afinal, meros e bem intencionados populistas, o que soa
como popular e pró-povo; terceiro, que não há necessidade de combatê-los – o
trabalhador sofre, mas eles fazem isso porque não têm alternativa para obter o
«progresso económico da nação», combater a corrupção e a criminalidade; etc.
No Brasil os
seguidores de Bolsonaro publicaram em redes sociais uma lista de mais de 700
"inimigos" para os quais pedem um «boicote».
É isto
fascismo? Talvez só populismo? Afinal de contas, boicotes, bloqueios e
sanções são palavras comuns dos «democratas» imperiais.
Um dos
primeiros anúncios de Bolsonaro depois de eleito foi: «Toda acção do
Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) e do MTST (Movimento dos
Trabalhadores Sem-Teto) será tipificada. como o terrorismo».
Será que cruzou
agora a linha para o fascismo? Ou ainda se qualifica como populista?
(Numa entrevista recente, o coordenador nacional do MTST
falou - correctamente a nosso ver - em “avanço do fascismo”).
O fascismo, com
o seu núcleo clássico de características, não aparece de repente, num sábado
à tarde. É o termo final de um processo pró-fascista.
Isto é, um processo que tem o fascismo como alvo, e que para o atingir
procura reunir as premissas adequadas.
Considere-se Temer,
líder do PMDB - Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro. Foi
vice-presidente de Dilma, que o elogiou como democrata. Após o golpe, começou
a entregar empresas ao capital americano, reprimiu
violentamente uma grande manifestação em Brasília, pôs o exército a controlar
as ruas do Rio, etc. Mas ainda tinha a máscara de democrata e de populista.
Anteontem Temer afirmou que o seu governo
«colabora intensamente» na transição para o governo Bolsonaro e que empregará
«todos os esforços» pela aprovação no Congresso, ainda em 2018, das medidas
que Bolsonaro entenda necessárias. Também convidou Bolsonaro a acompanhá-lo
na reunião dos G20 na Argentina em 30 de Novembro e noutras «viagens ao
exterior» para o introduzir na comunidade internacional. Temer e Bolsonaro
aparecem agora lado a lado, sorridentes e sintonizados. Que significa tudo
isto? Significa, sem qualquer dúvida, que o «democrata» de direita Temer foi
a escolha do grande capital para lançar as premissas de um processo
pró-fascista em que ainda era precisa a máscara de democrata e populista. Uma
vez realizada tal tarefa Temer já pôde descartar-se da máscara de democrata e
populista.
Trumps,
Bolsonaros, Macris, etc., são cabeças de processos pró-fascistas que podem
acabar em fascismo completo se não forem travados. Ao longo do processo, caem
as máscaras e rótulos. As máscaras e rótulos são transitórios. Por vezes só
duram alguns dias. Como a máscara de Sérgio Moro, o
juiz federal que impediu Lula de concorrer às eleições e aparece agora como
escolhido para ministro da Justiça de Bolsonaro, afirmando que o sistema
prisional irá deixar de ser «leniente». A direita é por natureza camaleónica
e usa máscaras por necessidade de enganar as pessoas, por necessidade de
esconder que a sua ideologia se pode resumir a um único princípio: maximizar
os lucros, maximizar a exploração!
Num processo
pró-fascista as máscaras são o que menos importa. O processo é que é
verdadeiramente importante.
O fascismo não
é inevitável, desde que o processo pró-fascista e o seu funcionamento interno
sejam devidamente caracterizados, os seus actos alarmantes imediatamente denunciados
e as massas mobilizadas para a luta. Isto passa, entre outras coisas, por terem
ideias claras sobre o que está em marcha, sobre quais são os planos do
inimigo, em vez de ficarem expectantes e confusas com discussões sobre o “sexo
dos anjos”.
O artigo Operação Condor, Parte II, em que o actual
processo pró-fascista neoliberal e global é analisado, está em https://www.abrilabril.pt/operacao-condor-parte-ii
Recomendamo-lo
vivamente. Abaixo,
apresentamos a nossa tradução em inglês.
|
The
article Operação Condor,
Parte II (Operation Condor, Part II)
written by José Goulão and posted
November 1, 2018 in AbrilAbril, is an
important one.
It
analyzes what happened in Brazil -- the pro-fascist subversion conducted by
the US secret services, with the support of the Brazilian oligarchies, which
led to the election of the fascist puppet Jair Bolsonaro -- in the light of
the global offensive of neoliberalism. This is even a most important article,
since, based on many articles and sites we have consulted, from several
countries, it seems to us that many on the Left (also from Brazil) failed in duly
grasping the political evolution in Brazil, its implications, and the ongoing
tendency of neoliberal capitalism to favor pro-fascist solutions.
Solutions
which, with the deepening of the crisis of capitalism, are always only one
step away of becoming fully fascist. For this reason it seems quite
irrelevant the idle talk of part of the Left, on whether Bolsonaro is
fascist, or only (!) extreme-right or populist. Many fascist dictators started
as populists. The mask they wear changes according to concrete circumstances,
according to the correlation of forces. Furthermore, one should not expect
that, beyond a basic core of features, all fascisms are equal and that in
present time fascism is or should be the same as in the 30s. And surely the
Left should not keep on wasting time in idle talk instead of taking action,
mobilizing the workers, the democrats, against a danger that exists, is
there, and must be confronted.
Just
picture keeping on mincing the words, keeping calling Trumps, Temers, Bolsonaros,
Macris, etc., as populists. Keeping on with the very erudite analyzes on
whether they are populists or something else. What does the common worker
make of all this? First, that the Left isn’t sure of what they really are; second,
that they may well be, after all, mere well-intended populists, with its
sounding of popular and pro-people; third, that there is no need to fight
them -- the worker suffers, but the populists do so because they have no
alternative in order to obtain the "economic progress of the
nation", to fight corruption and criminality; etc.
In
Is this
fascism? Or perhaps only populism? After all boycotts, blockades and
sanctions are common words of the imperialist “democrats”.
One
of Bolsonaro's first announcements after being elected was: "Every
action by the MST (Movimento dos
Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra = Movement of the Landless Rural Workers)
and MTST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores
sem Teto = Movement of the Homeless Workers) will be typified as
terrorism".
Has
he now crossed the line, to fascism? Or does he still qualify as populist?
(In a recent interview
the national coordinator of the MTST spoke – correctly in our view -- of
“advance of fascism.”)
Fascism
with its classic core of features doesn’t appear suddenly on a Saturday
afternoon. It is the end term of a pro-fascist
process. That is, a process that has fascism as target, and that in order
to achieve it seeks to gather the appropriate prerequisites.
Take
Temer, a leader of the PMDB – Party of the Democratic Brazilian Movement. He
was vice-president of Dilma who praised him as a democrat. After the coup he started
delivering companies to American capital, violently suppressed a great
demonstration in
Trumps,
Temers, Bolsonaros, Macris, etc., are heads of pro-fascist processes which
may well end in full-fledged fascism if not stopped. Along the process, masks
and labels fall. Masks and labels are transitory. Sometimes they last only a
few days. As the mask
of Sérgio Moro, the
federal judge who prevented Lula from running for the elections and now
appears chosen by Bolsonaro as minister of justice, saying that the prison
system will cease to be "lenient." The right-wing is by nature chameleonic
and wears masks out of the necessity of having to deceive people, by the
necessity of hiding that their ideology boils down to a single tenet:
maximize the profits, ergo maximize
the exploitation!
In a
pro-fascist process the masks are the least important. It is the process that
is really important.
Fascism
is not inevitable, provided the pro-fascist process and its inner workings
are duly analyzed, its alarming deeds are immediately exposed, and the masses
mobilized for the struggle. This depends, among other things, on having clear
ideas on what is going on what are the plans of the enemy, instead of staying
expectant and confused by “sex of the angels” discussions.
We
present below our translation of Operation
Condor, Part II, where the present global neoliberal pro-fascist process
is analyzed, and whose reading we vividly recommend.
|
Operation Condor,
Part II
Original in Portuguese: Operação
Condor, Parte II
by José
Goulão
From: AbrilAbril, November 1,
2018
The Latin
American retreat, combined with what is happening in Europe, confirms that
neoliberalism increasingly admits its inability to survive in democracy, even
if expunged from its essential principles.
Times
are different, the methods are different, but the goal is the same: to
subjugate populations, neutralize oppositions, guarantee the absolute power of
neoliberalism throughout Latin America. In the 1970s, under the high patronage
of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and operational command of the CIA, it
was called Operation Condor. Now, with more gowns and fewer carded boots, more ballot
boxes than pronouncements, with smartphones instead of typewriters, more scams
in palaces than in the barracks, but certainly under the same operational
command, it may be called "Operation Condor, Part II”. One after another,
in domino effect, the Latin American countries are realigned in regimes akin to
fascism.
The
election of Jair Bolsonaro is not only the harbinger of new somber times for
Brazil; the repercussions it will have at continental and global scale reflect
a potential retreat in the fight against neoliberalism -- that is why the
United States and its regional allies have staked so much, and in such
committed way, to the [Dilma’s impeachment] coup and its institutionalization.
Brazil
is the great power of Latin America; a foreseeable member of the UN Security
Council, if the determining nations in this organization have the good sense to
reform it; and, no less importantly, an essential participant in the BRICS
movement -- Brazil, India, Russia, China and South Africa – which is frightful
enough for the neoliberal dens since it confronts them with an alternative to
globalism.
For
the empire and its adjacencies it was necessary to turn Brazil around. And do
it without concessions to any democratic whims. Bolsonaro's Brazil will tend to
replicate Chile's Pinochet -- fascism pure and hard.
The “capitalism dream”
It is in fascism that neoliberalism feels comfortable: "the dream regime
of capitalism," as The Economist,
the bible of the system, put it. Margaret Thatcher -- the "mother" of
economic and political doctrine applied by the right-wing in Europe, as well as
by the far right and the neoliberalized social-democracy inaugurated by the deplorable
Tony Blair --, had already written in February 1982 to her master Friedrich von
Hayek, professor emeritus of the Chicago Boys: Chile's Pinochet regime "is a relevant example of economic reform from
which we can learn many lessons. (...) I am sure you agree that in the UK, with
our democratic institutions and the need for a high degree of consensus, some
of the measures taken in Chile are unacceptable. Our reform must be in line
with our Constitution. Sometimes the process may seem painfully slow. But I am
sure that we will accomplish it in our own way and in our time. It will then stay and last. "
As can
be perceived from these words, neoliberal tempo is not always sympathetic towards
Constitutions or democratic institutions, especially in periods of long and drawn-out
crisis, which exposes the system in its nakedness, accompanied by the emergence
of governments intending to revive popular concepts that, for neoliberal tempo is
imperative that they remain buried.
Nowhere in the world has there been in recent decades a wave of elected
governments as in Latin America, willing to call into question the order
imposed by the North. And nowhere as
in Latin America a wave of organized and
systematic reversing coups to restore order through fascism is observed.
If,
through various circumstances, including the resounding crisis of globalism,
neoliberalism returns to its origins, to economic orthodoxy guaranteed by a
fascist policy, then in no region of the globe will this be as noticeable as in
Latin America.
And
Bolsonaro was a strategic piece that was missing in the puzzle.
Venezuela and Honduras
On April 11, 2002, Venezuelan entities admittedly attached to the State
Department and other Washington institutions tried for the third time to
overthrow the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez, who had deliberately
confronted neoliberal pressures. A non-governmental organization of employers,
Fedecámeras -- "The pride of being entrepreneur" -- and the private
media, with the support of the Catholic hierarchy, called for a general strike
-- in other words, a lockout -- for an indefinite period, while the minister of
Defense, Lucas Rincon, announced the resignation of President Hugo Chavez. He
was arrested on an island relatively close to Caracas and the president of
Fedecámeras, Pedro Carmona, assumed the presidency and dissolved the
legislative and police apparatus. Five days earlier, a message from the US
Embassy in Caracas to the State Department had prophesied: "Dissident
military and low-ranking officers are increasing efforts to organize a coup
against President Chávez, possibly in the coming days of this month.”
The attempt lasted 47 hours. The countering popular
uprising eventually made it unfeasible and forced the release of the president --
who had not signed any document of resignation.
The
warning had sounded and to this day the United States continued to conspire and
impose sanctions and blockade against democratic Venezuela. Donald Trump has
already announced the possibility of a military aggression; the Organization of
American States (OAS) as well; the former president of Colombia, Juan Manuel
Santos, too, in the last days of his term.
Now, just before the end of the election campaign, Jair Bolsonaro has revealed
that he will propose a military coalition to Colombia -- a country that has
become NATO's "global partner" -- to invade Venezuela.
It was, however, since 2008, with the multiplication of democratic and popular
governments, that signs of organized conspiracy against Latin America began increasing.
At the
end of his term, George W. Bush decided to reactivate the IV Military Squad,
inert since 1950, in the oceans that bathe the South American Cone. The
confessed objective was to carry out "peace, humanitarian and anti-drug
trafficking missions", although the latter continues to grow everywhere
where US influence prevails, from Colombia to Mexico, from Honduras to
Afghanistan.
At the time, the Brazilian president, Lula da Silva, asked for explanations to
Washington. He even asked whether the rebirth of the fleet would not have to do
with the discovery of important oil reserves 300 kilometers off the Brazilian
coast and also from the offshore of the Malvinas archipelago, occupied by the
United Kingdom to Argentina.
In
June 2009, the democratically elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was
deposed by the military and by the President of the Parliament, Roberto
Micheletti, who had frequent contacts with John Negroponte, former ambassador
to the country from 1981 to 1985, advisor of the US state secretary Hillary
Clinton, and former chief of espionage services for President George W. Bush.
In
addition to timid social reforms, such as establishing a minimum wage,
President Zelaya intended to transform the military base of Palmerola or Soto
Cano -- the largest one in Central America occupied by United States troops --
into a civilian airport. In addition, under Zelaya's mandate, Honduras joined
ALBA -- the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America -- and joined the
same trade bloc of Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia.
After
being arrested by the military, Zelaya was deported to Costa Rica, with a
stopover in Palmerola, following a resignation statement he says he has never
signed.
Negroponte landed in Honduras shortly after the coup, meeting with the new
president Micheletti, who significantly had as head of the security structure
Jesus Escoto, founding member of Brigade 3-16, a death squad created at the
time Negroponte was ambassador in Tegucigalpa, during the dictatorship of
Gustavo Álvarez. Thousands of political prisoners were murdered and reported as
"missing" by Brigade 3-16.
Interviewed in 2011 by Globo, Negroponte revealed that the changes in Honduras
in 2009 corresponded to the "new Latin American geopolitics".
"It did not matter who was right, if Zelaya or Micheletti, what was
important was to move on," explained Mrs. Clinton's advisor.
Since
then, "democratic" elections have been held regularly in Honduras. In
2013 and 2017, Juan Orlando Hernández, the fascist candidate of the bosses,
won. Coincidentally, both counts of votes had suffered from several blackouts
during which the trends recorded so far had drastically reversed, with
miraculous turns in favor of the declared winning candidate.
The fraud and misery of the people of Honduras go hand in hand. And the victims
of this martyrdom now go in caravan to ask asylum to those who provoked it. At
the risk of being received by a contingent of 15,000 soldiers, as promised by
President Donald Trump.
A more defined pattern
From the events in Honduras, where the changes had military and institutional
components, the pattern of “Operation Condor - Part II” became more defined, staking
on allegedly institutional processes.
The first case was registered in Paraguay in June 2012. The popular president
elected by the Patriotic Alliance, the former Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo,
was dismissed by impeachment through a vote in the Senate Congress which acted
as Supreme Court, and was replaced by the vice president, Federico Franco. The
senators who dictated the sentence condemned the president for "improper,
negligent and irresponsible" governance, generating "confrontation
and class struggle."
Today, Paraguay has returned to the fascist routines in economic and social
terms.
The
United States ambassador to Paraguay was Liliana Ayalde, a 20-year veteran of
USAID, one of the CIA masks for the attempts.
About a year before the coup, the ambassador received journalists and blog
owners to "talk about paradigms and guidelines." "Political
actors from all quarters have sought me out to hear advice; and our influence
is much greater than our footprints," said Liliana Ayalde in an interview
given at the time.
She also said that "political control of the Supreme Court is crucial to
ensure impunity for crimes committed by skilled politicians. Having friends at the
Supreme Court is pure gold." From Paraguay, Liliana Ayalde was transferred
precisely to Brasilia, from where she left shortly before the coup of 2016 carried
through the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, resorting to manipulation
of the judiciary, and replacement by Vice President Michel Temer.
In 2013, according to former United States National Security Agency (NSA)
analyst Edward Snowden, "Brazil was the most spied country in the world."
Meanwhile, the guidelines defended by Liliana Ayalde through USAID were applied
in countries where this NGO acts: destabilization provoked by non-governmental
organizations, accompanied by the organization of campaigns in the media,
influence on the judicial apparatus and use of possible constitutional gaps to
trigger impeachment processes.
«Prosperity is born out of pain»
The coup of Temer was the first step towards the rise of Bolsonaro and, with
him, the risk of instituting a fascist dictatorship in Brazil.
The second step was the arrest of former President Lula da Silva, based on
simple "convictions" of a judge and by setting up a media circus in
the style of the " Operation Clean Hands" in Italy, through daily
"leak" of documents of the process into the hands of journalists, as
explained by the secretary of the Judge Instructor Sérgio Moro, already made Minister
of Justice by Bolsonaro.
The use of the judicial apparatus to prevent prestigious ex-presidents, who are
very well-qualified in polls to reapply, is another key component of the
ongoing Operation Condor.
Lula
da Silva had an overwhelming advantage in the intentions of voting and in
addition to being detained he was prevented from running for the elections.
Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner is being the victim of a judicial
process characterized by a total lack of credibility, produced by an already
corrupt justice system. The objective is obvious: stop her candidacy in next
year's elections against Macri, the president who takes Argentina to the abyss.
Mauricio Macri is a fascist politician in the true sense of the word, a
neoliberal exponent who left the Chamber of Buenos Aires in a deplorable
financial situation, but who benefited from a millionaire campaign and was sustained
by a lying and mystification apparatus mounted in social media and social
networks against Kirchner and the candidate of the Broad Front.
A
campaign of accusations and lawsuits also hits Ecuador's former president,
Rafael Correa, who launched the "Citizen's Revolution" in 2007 and
whose advances in popular and social domains are being betrayed by Lenin
Moreno, his successor and ex- vice president.
Moreno removed Ecuador from ALBA, carried a come back of the US military and
spies in order to "compensate" Washington for the closure of Manta's
military base, which Correa had decided; and, after cutting off Internet access
to Julian Assange, head of WikiLeaks, is preparing to leave him at the mercy of
the United States. "He's just a hacker eavesdropping on private
e-mails," Moreno said of Assange.
It has
come to light, however, that the US State Department had expressed concerns
about the possible hypothesis that the health state of Moreno -- then Correa's
vice president -- would prevent his candidacy to the 2013 elections. Moreover,
that the same State Department had at the time privileged access to information
from Quito on the outlook for the presidential elections and also on the
movements of Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian consulate in London.
Living
in Belgium since he left Ecuador, Rafael Correa faces a police siege and a
backlog of lawsuits in his country, all targeted to impeding a coming candidacy.
In
Bolivia every day, accusations and threats pour down against President Evo
Morales, head of a popular process that continues resisting the conspiracy,
along with that of Venezuela.
In Nicaragua, Sandinista President Daniel Ortega faces permanent
destabilization by employers' associations, which, in addition to traditional
lockouts, incite street violence that global social media cloak as popular
revolt.
In the case of Nicaragua, the conspiracy against Ortega became more evident
once the opening of a second inter-ocean canal, negotiated with China and which
will be an alternative to the Panama Canal, gained viability.
Honduras,
Paraguay, Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil have already fallen into the fascist
clutches of the new Operation Condor. In Bolivia, Nicaragua, and especially in
Venezuela, threats are rising. And also in Uruguay -- where military voices deny
the previous existence of a dictatorship and consider that investigating what
happened to the "disappeared people is a waste of money."
Meanwhile, a disciple of Augusto Pinochet, Sergio Piñera, keeps Chile under
control, just like the fascist Rafael Duque in Colombia.
The situation in Brazil marks the consolidation of the systematic conspiracy
process and establishes a turning point. The Latin American retreat, combined
with what is happening in Europe, confirms that neoliberalism increasingly
admits its inability to survive in democracy, even where it has already been
expunged from many of its essential principles, as in the European Union.
This
is all running as stated by the propaganda praising the Chilean "economic
miracle" in the time of Pinochet: "prosperity is born out of
pain."
Or, as Friedrich van Hayek, the master of Mrs.
Thatcher, told the newspaper El Mercurio,
an unofficial organ of the Chilean dictatorship: "If the totalitarian
option is the only opportunity that exists at any given moment, then it may be
the best solution."
