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- BBC News World
November 1, 2022
Updated 8 hours
Image copyright Diego Vara/Portal
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Bolsonaro supporters protest.
Shortly after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory in the second round of Brazil’s presidential elections against Jair Bolsonaro was confirmed this Sunday, groups of Bolsonaro truckers and other supporters of the current president began blocking roads.
Until this Monday evening they had registered 342 Protests – with partial or full blockades – in the country’s 26 statesreported the Federal Highway Police (PRF, for its acronym in Portuguese).
The states with the most blockades are Santa Catarina (48), Rio Grande do Sul (43) and Mato Grosso do Sul (42).
Authorities have started to take action after protests by transport companies disrupted traffic in some areas of the country for more than 12 hours.
restoration of normality
Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) President Alexandre de Moraes on Monday ordered police to begin lifting blockades on highways and other public roads.
Image copyrightReuters
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One of the blockades registered in the last few hours in the state of Mato Grosso, one of the largest grain producers in the country.
The order was issued by the official in response to a lawsuit filed by the National Transport Confederation (CNT), in which he warned that the Constitution certainly recognizes the right to protest, but warned that it could not be exercised “in an abusive and threatening manner,” which would protect the rights and freedoms of others”.
De Moraes made it clear that if truck drivers fail to comply with his instructions after midnight Tuesday, they will be fined 100,000 reais an hour ($19,305).
But the judge not only acted against the demonstrators, but also against the police. Thus, the president of the TSE, after assuring that there was “omission and indolence” on the part of the PRF, also threatened to fine the organization’s director, Silvinei Vasques, a fine of 100,000 reais and to dismiss him if he did so under his orders not comply.
“The position of the President will determine the course of the protests”
Janderson Maçanero, a truck driver from Itajaí (Santa Catarina) who is taking part in the protests, says that in his city only 20% of the protesters are truck drivers and the rest are citizens of various professions.
Image copyrightReuters
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Burnt tires are used to block roads.
What is being addressed, the non-acceptance of the new president, differs from the target of other protests the truck driver has attended, such as in 2014 when a strike was staged to demand a cut in fuel prices and in 2019 when they demanded the direct hiring of Truck drivers without intermediaries demanded.
It also takes care of that The protests have no direct leadership or claim.
For example, some defend a military coup – which they believe is not the case – but all have in common the rejection of Lula and the failure to accept the election victory of the Workers’ Party (PT). .
“It is the President’s position that will determine the course of the protests. We’re waiting for you to speak. Either Bolsonaro goes to war or disappears from the political scenebecause then he’s not the leader we thought,” he reveals.
“Going to war” isn’t an acceptance of the outcome, he says, but doesn’t detail how that might play out, as he himself makes it clear he doesn’t support a military coup. He hopes the President will announce the solution.
Image copyrightPersonal Archive
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Janderson Maçanero, truck driver from Itajaí (Santa Catarina).
Add that Bolsonaro’s acceptance of the results would disappoint him and many of his peers.
When asked how long the strike could last, he explains that “time is relative” for truckers: “Here we are at home. Our truck has a place to eat, a place to sleep… That’s our everyday life.”
“I think there will be no difficulty in negotiating with the Lula government”
Wanderlei Dedeco, a trucker from Curitiba, Paraná, who describes himself as an “adviser” to the truckers’ leaders, is opposed to the strikes and says that until the beginning of the day he didn’t believe the protests would last long, but he did already started to see the stage with “different eyes”.
“The demonstrations are increasing rapidly and there is no immediate intervention by the PRF, as has been the case on other occasions. Bolsonaro’s delay in speaking out could help spread protests“, he shows.
Image copyrightPersonal Archive
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Wanderlei Dedeco, trucker from Curitiba, Paraná
“The protests are being made by angry truck drivers who don’t accept losing and businessmen who believe they will lose something with the Lula government. But yesterday democracy was present, that’s how the game works,” he says.
Despite the protests, there are truck driver representatives who see the possibility of dialogue with the Lula government.
Dedeco was one of the leaders of the 2018 trucker strike and, unlike the truckers involved in those protests, backed Lula in the second round of the election.
Image copyright Diego Vara/Portal
caption,
Despite the protests, there are trucker representatives who believe the union has opportunities for dialogue with the Lula government.
“I was once critical of PT and Lula, I believed in Lava Jato. But if the federal court didn’t convict him, who should I? I voted for Lula and now I want him to rule. You can be sure that I will criticize him, unlike the Bolsonaristas who ‘adored’ Bolsonaro and accepted everything bad he did,” he says.
In his opinion, the truck drivers benefit more from Lula’s choice: “With the Bolsonaro government, there were no conditions for sitting down to negotiate. “I think we will have no trouble negotiating with the Lula government,” he says.
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