SÃO PAULO — Brazilians are preparing to contest Sunday’s presidential election after one of the fiercest campaigns since the country’s return to democracy in 1985, marked by a spate of brutal killings that police believe were political were motivated.
President Jair Bolsonaro and his left-wing rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former president who polls say is likely to win, are now wearing bulletproof vests. At least two dozen candidates from the political left and right said they sought police protection after receiving death threats from the opposition.
“I fear for Brazil’s future,” said Abidan Henrique, a 25-year-old engineer who is running as the Brazilian Socialist Party’s candidate for MP. After opposition supporters threatened to kill and rape his girlfriend in messages via Facebook and WhatsApp, Mr Henrique avoided campaigning after dark.
President Jair Bolsonaro said he assumed widespread voter fraud.
Photo: Andre Penner/Associated Press
About 40 mostly local politicians from left and right have been killed in the first half of this year, while about 170 others have died from attempted killings, beatings, kidnappings and verbal attacks, including death threats, in connection with their role in office, according to a police report Observatory on Political and Electoral Violence at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro. The scale of the attacks is about 50% higher than in the previous six months and more than quadrupled compared to the first half of 2019 when the group began tracking the data.
From July to September 23, there were 140 attacks on politicians, a 40% increase from 101 for the entire previous quarter, said political scientist Felipe Borba, who coordinated the report. After collecting all incidents of violence against politicians reported in the press, his research team verified that each attack was carried out to restrict or ban the victim’s political activities.
“The country is deeply polarized and these elections have been marked by a deep intolerance towards political opponents,” Mr Borba said, adding that violent political clashes among voters themselves have increased in recent months.
Like many candidates, Kim Kataguiri, who is running for re-election to the Chamber of Deputies as the candidate of the centre-right Brazilian Union party, fears what could happen the day after the election.
Polls suggest that former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is likely to prevail in Brazil’s vote.
Photo: Fabio Lima/Portal
“Whoever wins, the other side is likely to hold protests and this will inevitably lead to conflict,” said Mr Kataguiri, who called for police assistance for the first time last week after a Twitter user posted the exact time and location, who planned to kill him. The death threat – the most detailed he has received so far, according to Mr Kataguiri – came after he was attacked with a glass bottle by members of the left-wing opposition in 2018 and hit by a car in 2015.
While Brazil’s history has been one of violence – from killings of indigenous peoples under colonial rule to revolts, revolutions and the 1964-85 military dictatorship – elections in one of the world’s largest democracies have been largely peaceful affairs.
The election of Mr Bolsonaro in 2018 deeply divided the country, political scientists said. Mr Bolsonaro, known for his fiery and combative rhetoric, has whipped up his base and enraged many supporters of Mr da Silva’s Labor Party.
Mr Bolsonaro has frequently said he suspects widespread fraud will erupt in the election without providing evidence and has vowed to only honor the result if it is “clean”. His stance has raised concerns among his supporters, many of whom have said they believe the election is being stolen. If Mr Bolsonaro loses, it would be the first time since the early 1990s that an elected president has failed to win a second term.
Kim Kataguiri, who is seeking re-election to the Chamber of Deputies, says he fears what could happen the day after the election.
Photo Credit: Roberto Casimiro/Zuma Press
The 2018 jailing of Mr da Silva on corruption charges – which prevented him from running against the Conservatives in the last election – has added to tensions, particularly because many of the judges involved in the case were supporters of Mr Bolsonaro, political analysts said . Mr da Silva was released in November 2019 following a Supreme Court ruling.
“It’s always annoying when there’s an increase in political violence,” said Steven Levitsky, director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. “But what really matters, and what’s new in Brazil and different from any period since 1985, is that you have an authoritarian in the executive — that changes the game,” he said, referring to the government’s executive branch.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has launched an investigation into Mr Bolsonaro and several of his supporters over inflammatory comments about the legitimacy of the country’s e-voting system and attacks on members of the court itself. At a rally last year, Mr Bolsonaro vowed that the presidential election would only end in “my arrest, my death or my victory”. He added, “And let me say to the scum out there: I will never be arrested.” The presidential palace did not respond to requests for comment.
Tensions among Brazilian voters have flared ahead of Sunday’s general election.
Photo: Andre Coelho/Shutterstock
Before the first ballot, violence broke out among the voters themselves.
In one recent incident, police said a man entered a bar in the northern town of Cascavel in late September and asked who was voting for Mr da Silva. When a 39-year-old man replied, “I will,” the other man stabbed and killed him, police said, citing witnesses.
In another incident around the same time, a supporter of Mr Bolsonaro was stabbed and killed at a bar in the southern city of Rio do Sul after expressing support for the right-wing leader, in what police say was a likely politically motivated attack led .
While political violence is rampant in other Latin American countries like Mexico, where criminal gangs have shot dozens of candidates during election season, Levitsky marks these attacks – ordinary Brazilians killing each other for political reasons – as a worrying new trend.
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About two-thirds of voters in Brazil fear attacks because of their political preferences, according to a Datafolha poll conducted in August, and expressed concerns that threats of violence could reduce voter turnout in the world’s fourth-largest democracy. While voting is mandatory in Brazil, the fine for non-compliance, at around 65 cents, is largely symbolic.
“The critical point,” Mr. Levitsky said, “is whether political organizations stand up and actively denounce it, whether they remain silent, or condone it, or maybe even foment it.”
Left leaders have also come under scrutiny. Mr da Silva has faced criticism while defending a former Labor Party councilor accused of pushing a right-wing businessman in front of a moving truck in 2018 after the victim molested a left-wing candidate. “We can never pay this debt I owe you in cash,” Mr da Silva told the accused former councilor earlier this year. “We can pay it in solidarity and camaraderie.”
In another incident, a 15-year-old boy claimed that Guilherme Boulos, a leader of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL), pushed him and incited his supporters to hit him during a rally in São Paulo in late September after the teenager criticized PSOL in support of left-wing dictatorships in other parts of Latin America. Mr Boulos has denied wrongdoing.
João Bettega, who is running for state deputy as a member of the centre-right Novo party, said he is no longer fighting alone after receiving threats and recently being slapped in the face by someone he said was an ally of Mr Bolsonaro. “The violence is coming from both sides,” Mr Bettega said.
Write to Samantha Pearson at [email protected] and Luciana Magalhaes at [email protected]
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