Caetano Veloso denounced the course that Brazil took with the right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, and, in a decisive electoral year for the country, he put himself at the head of a movement of rejection, a role that, at 79, keeps the singer-songwriter with vitality and somewhat optimistic.
Caetano says that, in the midst of democracy, Brazil is experiencing a moment of intolerance and setbacks in relation to the environment, which requires artists and civil society to “put their faces on the street”. For that, he traveled this Wednesday to Brasilia, summoned as the leader of an act against the advance of “environmental destruction” through a package of bills defended by Bolsonaro.
Amid the intense agenda in the capital, where he met with Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco and with STF ministers, the musician received AFP in his dressing room, before taking the stage to sing against environmental destruction.
QUESTION: You’ve been a critic of the government’s environmental policy for a long time. Why did you decide to take to the streets now?
ANSWER: “These bills, some passed through the Chamber of Deputies and are now reaching the Senate. We were looking for a date that was good for the reaction. It was possible to bring together people from our class, artists, and all social movement groups, NGOs that fight for the environment.”
Q: Is the main concern with the indigenous people?
A: “Especially with this mining bill, indigenous populations are immediately the victims, in a blatant way. Because even this use of the need for potash because of the war in Ukraine (which may affect Russian fertilizer imports) does not justify, because it is used as a pretext.
What there is is a plan to undo the environmental defense anyway. Also other things in Brazil are being programmatically destroyed, including cultural activity, but in the case of the environment, the disrespect is for everyone.”
Q: Before the 2018 election, you said that if Bolsonaro won, there would come a wave of “terror and hate”. After more than three years on the job, what did you imagine happen?
A: “What is happening in Brazil is horrible. I’ve lived under a military dictatorship, I was arrested, exiled, but today, in the midst of democracy, sometimes even cruder things are proposed by the federal government. Not only is there praise for the worst aspects of the dictatorship, but there is also a sense of political violence over Brazilian life. Brazilians have to react for their health, mental, spiritual and physical.”
Q: In a presidential election year, in which Bolsonaro and the leftist ex-President Lula must face each other, what are your expectations?
A: “There is room for optimism, but the fear is great. Because this thing (the Bolsonarista machine, ndr) is amazing, it has enormous effectiveness in the use of social networks, the internet. It is an international business, this has to do with Steve Bannon (an advisor to former US President Donald Trump), with international organizations, and the use of social networks is a very developed business, as if it were a deadly disease that was affecting society. human.
But I have pragmatic optimism, because without optimism you feel entitled to shirk responsibility. I do not want to exempt myself from responsibilities, nor do I think that the Brazilian people should do so.”
Q: What role should artists take on?
A: “It is important that they express themselves, because they are creators who often become well known by a large part of the population. And there is also an identification between the artistic creator and the ecological defense. It is good that we can serve as amplifiers of an issue that the Brazilian people are experiencing and that needs vocalization.”
Q: How do you think the outcome of the October election and an eventual change of government might impact the climate of intolerance and aggression you described?
A: “It is possible that Bolsonaro will lose. But what he represents does not disappear from one moment to the next. He may not win, I hope he doesn’t, but Bolsonarism doesn’t leave history so easily. “
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