But for those of us who are capable of being instructed by information, these ten datapoints about Brazil may be welcome, especially since the media appears to consider them sufficiently significant to keep them from us.
10 Things Foreigners Need To Know About Brazil, But The Media Will Never Tell Them
1. President Bolsonaro was elected with 58 million votes and enjoys overwhelming support from the population and from voters. His recent motorcades in several major cities have attracted hundreds of thousands of people, in a mass show of support for the government NEVER BEFORE SEEN IN BRAZIL.
2. Bolsonaro is the first President Brazil has had since 1985 who is not a leftist or sympathizer . His election was deemed unacceptable by the Left who, as soon as the vote count ended, swore to raise hell and to stop at nothing to remove him from power.
3. Former president Lula was indicted for several crimes and sentenced by many different courts to a prison term. In a shocking and incomprehensible reversal he was let out of prison, all his convictions were annulled and the judge who sentenced him – Sergio Moro – was deemed biased. Most Brazilians see this as a travesty of justice and a politically-motivated violation of the Rule of Law carried out to place a convicted criminal in next year’s presidential race.
4. Life is pretty much back to normal now. People are working, going to school, traveling, going to bars, malls, restaurants, movies, hotels and beaches. The “stay at home” time is gone.
5. In recent months a congressman, a journalist and several demonstrators were illegally arrested just because of their opinions. None of the arrests were ordered by the President.
6. Over 40,000 inmates, most of them convicted of violent crimes, were let out of prison all over Brazil for “humanitarian reasons” during the pandemic. Many have killed after being released.
7. Police operations in the 1,400+ slums of Rio de Janeiro – all held by drug-lords or gangsters – have been suspended by court order since June 2020.
8. Brazil has an electronic, country-wide black-box-type voting system which is centrally controlled by an Elections Court. This court regulates the elections, enforces the regulations, runs the voting operations, tallies the votes and resolves disputes. Brazilians want the system to be auditable. The Elections Court is fighting this request tooth and nail.
9. Big media has lost all credibility. They have spent the last year and half drumming up fear in the population and presenting viewers and readers with a skewed view of reality created with the sole purpose of removing the President from power.
10. Supporters of the President have been intensely harassed, hit with bizarre secret court investigations, banned from social networks, subpoenaed by Congress inquiry commitees and vilified on national TV for the unforgivable crime of expressing their support for the President.