Brazil: The Generals Place Bolsonaro as a Disposable President, if Necessary!

Statement of the Corrente Comunista Revolucionária-CCR (Brazilian section of the RCIT), 15 December 2018, http://www.elmundosocialista.blogspot.com

The media of Brazil have published details of a report from COAF (in English: Federal Board Control of Financial Activities) which showed atypical movement of R $1.2 million of reais (300,000 dollars) in the bank current account of Fabrício José Carlos de Queiroz. Queiroz is a former employee of the newly elected Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who is the son of elected president Jair Bolsonaro. During the time Queiroz was working with the son of the president he received a monthly salary of 25 thousand reais, which is totally incompatible with such a huge amount of money on his bank account. One of the persons, to whom Queiroz sent money, was Michele Bolsonaro, who happens to be the wife of the President. In summary, the family of the new president is receiving money of unknown origin through an ex-employee whose wage income is not compatible with bank transactions of more than 1 million reais. Under the laws of Brazil, any bank transaction that exceeds 30 thousand reais in cash must be declared the origin.

Question: What is the source of the money?

The media has already called the case as Bolsogate, a clear reference to the Watergate case that brought down President Nixon in 1974. In short, the Federal Police just have to do the traditional "Follow the money!", i.e. to discover the origin of these more than 1 million reais and investigate the reasons why a simple parliamentary employee was donating money to his former bosses. All indicates that the Bolsonaro family had the habit of hiring parliamentary assistants and required them to deposit a portion of their wages back into Queiroz's banking account for him to pass back on to the president's own family.

The intervention of the elected general vice-president

The main voices demanding explanations are not only coming from opposition parties and the media, but also from General Hamilton Mourão, the elected vice-President. Mourão did not disguise the words: "The former driver, which I know as Queiroz, needs to say where this money came from. The COAF tracks everything, it is necessary to explain these banking movements, otherwise it looks like his hiding something ". That is, in being Mourão not only the Vice-President, but the maximum representative of the generals in power, it becomes evident who actually will give the orders in the future govern.

Is Bolsonaro a disposable president?

According to the Constitution any President-elect is hierarchically the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. However, since the illegal imprisonment of politicians and businessmen by the Operation Lava Jato passing over the constitution, commanded by former judge Sergio Moro (now indicated as next minister of Justice of Bolsonaro, as reward for having prevented Lula da Silva from running presidential elections) the so-called rule of law and democracy does not exist in Brazil. So, General Vice-President Mourão demonstrated clearly that the captain President Bolsonaro from now on is a president under the supervision of the armed forces. Therefore, he is easily disposable if necessary.

The great contradiction of a President who was elected on the basis of "against corruption!"

The situation is in such complicated for the future president that, besides the problem of the Bolsonaro family having to explain what the origin of this money is, he obviously deceived his supporters who voted for him with the slogan “against corruption”. Furthermore, his future minister, Onyx Lorenzoni, who will have the responsibility to enter in a dialogue with the National Congress for approval of neoliberal reforms, has also being accused last week by operation Lava Jato of having received dirty money from the meat exporting company JBS.

In short, the future Bolsonaro government, even before taking office, despite all its semi-fascist, authoritarian and ultra reactionary rhetoric, it is already clear that it will be unstable from a political and economic standpoint. For a president who was elected under the banner against corruption and against the “corrupt traditional politicians”, of which the main target was the Workers Party and the left-wing organizations, ironically this same Bolsonaro and his family is now being accused of the same supposed wrongdoings of his opponents!

The position of CCR

For us from the CCR, it is becoming increasingly clear that the country already has an ultra-reactionary militarized regime. In this context it is necessary to build our independent struggle and organization. What is needed is the immediate formation of a broad united front of all working-class and oppressed mass organizations (CUT, PT, MST, MTST, etc.) to organize a mass resistance against the future government that takes office on January 1^st. Such resistance must be much broader and more permanent than a simple electoral project. We can not wait for 4 years and rely on winning elections that will likely be a fraud again. Such resistance should include mass demonstrations and strikes. Ultimately, it is urgent to prepare a political general strike!