By Matthew Tyrmand, Journalist
(Opinion) You can read in major newspapers everywhere that the military in Brazil found no signs of electoral fraud in the presidential election and that the election, in which the leftist Lula da Silva won by a narrow margin, was legitimate.
But people disagree.
What Brazil is experiencing right now is the biggest popular uprising I have ever seen in my life. Historically, it is comparable to the fall of communism in Europe in the late 80s and early 90s.
Never in the world have there been protests on this scale in the streets. We’re not just talking about millions; we are talking about 8 figures, tens of millions.
Brazil has a population of just over 210 million.
The MoD audit of electronic ballot boxes said in its 65 pages: “We believe there are some things that we were not allowed to audit that appear potentially fraudulent.”
They did not say it was a scam because the High Electoral Court, Bursa, prevented them from doing a proper audit.
The TSE has denied the armed forces access to the equipment
The TSE has denied the armed forces access to certain data
TSE has denied the armed forces access to source codes
The TSE is an auxiliary court of the Supreme Court of Brazil STF. And not coincidentally, it was led by the same figure, Alexandre de Moraes, who is the number 1 public enemy of liberals in Brazil, left and right.
Moraes behaves like a judicial tyrant, dictating legislation and/or the judiciary. He puts journalists in jail and changes laws, even though the STF has no legal right to do so.
And the Brazilian Constitution, of which the STF is supposed to be the arbiter, expressly states that if there is a dispute over the separation of powers, as is now taking place as the judiciary censures members of the legislative and executive branches, the military must arbitrate that dispute.
Under the Brazilian Constitution, it is also the military’s responsibility to review elections when fraud and irregularities are suspected.
Meanwhile, the TSE prevented the army from auditing and now the STF is openly discussing the need to arrest the defense minister.
They are doing this because they know that the army is on the side of the people. People are protesting in front of military barracks for a reason.
The military must be the force that comes and decides this conflict by force if necessary.
And maybe arrest those judges and declare martial law.
We are in Latin America and the military has been involved in government since the 60s and 70s.
Brazil has been free of military rule for a long time, but given the constitutional rights granted to the military, one will probably be necessary if other tyrannies emerge.
Things get very, very heated.
On November 15, millions of people took to the streets. Even in cities like Recife in the north, a historical bastion of the left, where Lula da Silva is expected to do very well.
But even there, people feel disenfranchised because some of the counts in the provincial districts and electoral administrative areas have shown that there were ZERO votes for Bolsonaro.
And there are thousands of videos online of people from those districts saying, “No, no, I voted for Bolsonaro.”
I think this will all end with some kind of martial law, with the army stepping in and the Supreme Court being clamped down on.
You can download the video here.
