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News Breakdown: What Happened in Brazil and the Importance of Global Citizenship

  • alexisgtrifon
  • Jan 15, 2023
  • 2 min read

Updated: Jul 3, 2023

By Alexis Trifon


On January 8, 2023, just two days after the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, Brazil's Congress was attacked. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in as Brazil's new president on January 1, 2023. Lula, a member of Brazil's left-leaning working party, considers himself a moderate liberal with an agenda for social justice. He was president of Brazil from 2003 to 2011, and now at 77 years old, Lula is the country's oldest president. Jair Bolsonaro, the conservative former president, lost the election a two-point margin. It is important to note that Brazil's recent election had many parallels to America's 2020 presidential election: Both elections had two polar opposite candidates fighting to serve a divided country.

Trump gave his support to Bolsonaro during the election. After Bolsonaro's loss, both he and Trump challenged the results and called into question the electronic voting system. However, Bolsonaro agreed to "follow all the orders and prescriptions of the Constitution" two days later.

Despite making a statement, Bolsonaro never explicitly accepted the election results. After weeks of smaller protests, his supporters stormed Brazil's Congress. Lula, along with many other world leaders including Biden and Macron, condemned the protest calling it "barbaric" and "fascist." That day, Lula tweeted, "Democracy guarantees the right to free expression, but it also requires people to respect institutions." Since then, Brazil's government has arrested over 4,000 people and plans to prosecute those involved.

It is hard to view this event as independent of what happened in the US on January 6. The American people must understand that our actions and collective responses to those actions have global consequences. When one democracy fails, all democracies fail. It is indisputable that political extremism is on the rise. As citizens of the world, it is our responsibility to be aware of these injustices and to speak out when they occur.

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