01-23-2020, 01:31 PM
Quote:The film focuses on two pre-Bolsonaro events: the 2016 impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the 2017 corruption conviction, and ultimate imprisonment, of Rousseff’s party compatriot, Lula da Silva, when Lula was leading all polls by a substantial margin for the 2018 presidential race. Both Rousseff and Lula are members of the center-left Workers’ party (PT).A new film argues that Brazil teeters on the brink of authoritarianism. It's true | David Miranda | Opinion | The Guardian
Bolsonaro’s path to power was paved by the imprisonment of Lula and subsequent barring of him from the 2018 race – a result secured by a dubious probe, nicknamed Car Wash, by then judge Sérgio Moro. After Bolsonaro’s win, Moro – in a transaction which even many of his longtime supporters viewed as having the stench of a quid pro quo – was rewarded by Bolsonaro with a huge promotion, from low-level judge in the mid-sized city of Curitiba to the all-powerful minister of justice and public security.
Since then, a massive leaked archive of secret conversations (reported by the Intercept) has revealed serious wrongdoing by Moro and the anti-corruption prosecutors he led. The revelations may have contributed to the Brazilian supreme court’s decision to free Lula from prison in November last year. (Disclosure: my husband, Glenn Greenwald, is a co-founder of the Intercept and the journalist who received that archive.) Costa’s film suggests that the reputed corruption and authoritarian tendencies of Bolsonaro and the Brazilian far right were visible long before the Intercept showed the definitive proof to the world.