Columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady published a text this sunday (22) in the US economic news journal Wall Street Journal, stating that the Federal Supreme Court (STF) “is an even greater threat to democracy than the riots of January 8” in Brazil. In the text, she defines Minister Alexandre de Moraes as someone who “has a decidedly authoritarian tendency” and “became the face of a repression of freedom of expression not seen since the country returned to democracy under the 1988 Constitution”.
For O’Grady, the events in the Brazilian Congress on January 8 “deserve unequivocal condemnation”, with the State being responsible for “bringing those responsible for the destruction of government property to justice”. The columnist argues, however, that “the allegation that the riot in Brasília is the result of January 6, 2021 [data do ataque ao Capitólio] smacks of selective moralizing.” “When far-left extremists vandalized Colombia for months in 2021, I don’t remember the chatty DC classes blaming the US Black Lives Matter-linked summer 2020 riots.”
For her, the fuss over acts of vandalism may be convenient so as not to perceive “the imminent danger to freedom that now lurks in Brazil: a Supreme Court that is muzzling its critics, freezing its assets and even arresting some, all without due process.” O’Grady recalls how chavismo destroyed democracy in Venezuela, through its control of the judiciary and the elimination of legal rights and protections, being applauded by Jimmy Carter and emulated by “tyrants in Bolivia and Nicaragua”.
The editor recalls that until then she had believed that the memory of the military dictatorship in Brazil, press and civil freedom and Brazilian economic policy “would be enough to prevent the country from reverting to a one-party regime”, which was uncertain in the face of the current scenario.
O’Grady criticized the STF’s action in annulling Lula’s conviction, which she defines as, along with the PT, the orchestrator of “the greatest corruption scheme in the history of the Western Hemisphere”. “Many Brazilians continue to consider him a thief who escaped justice because the Superior Court played politics. On independent news platforms, on social media and in private chat groups, his crimes remain a hot topic,” she says.
The author exemplified as problematic the performance of the STF and the TSE in the process involving businessmen after conversations about an alleged “coup” in WhatsApp groups and prohibitions on contesting the result of the presidential election. “The Supreme Court of Brazil is making up the law as it goes along. If no one stops, the January 8 melee will end up being the least of the threats to freedom that Brazilians face.”
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