The US Far-Right Cheerleaders of the Attack on Brazil’s Democracy

The links between Brazil’s far-right leaders and the US Stop The Steal activists suggest a globally-connected movement determined to attack democracy

US far-right figures who helped to fuel Trump’s ‘big lie’ are connected to the fascist attacks on Brazilian democracy, according to analysis.

On Sunday 8 January, in scenes that mirrored the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol in Washington D.C just over two years ago, far-right supporters of Jair Bolsonara attacked Brazil’s Congress in protest at the 2022 electoral success of the left-wing former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The supporters of former President Bolsonaro – who is currently holed up in Florida and who spent the run-up to 2022’s vote threatening that the left would ‘steal’ the election – stormed the building, destroying priceless historical artifacts and attacking the heart of Brazilian democracy.

In the run-up to the events, Bolsonaro supporters were camping outside army bases and calling for a military coup, while planning logistics for the attack on the Telegram social media channel. 

Lula has promised to punish the “neo-fascists” who are responsible, strongly condemning Bolsonaro for “encouraging” the violence – an allegation he rejects. But those responsible go beyond Brazil’s borders – with US far-right figures fuelling the fascist anger on display. 

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The Trump of the Tropics

During his time in office, Bolsonaro counted Trump as one of his key allies – not least for their shared interests in anti-abortion, anti-LGBTIQ policies, environmental destruction, and a preference for disaster capitalism over climate protections. Both leaders promised to tackle corruption: in its far-right sense this has less to do with financial inequality and more to do with attacks on nationalist, patriarchal power. 

So when it came to an insurgent left threatening his power base, it was perhaps of little surprise that Bolsonaro moved to the Trumpian playbook – whipping up fear that the election would be “stolen”, often via unsubstantiated claims about voting systems. 

The losing leader did not have to look far for advice and ideas on how to manipulate his far-right base to lose faith in the democratic process. His son, Eduardo, has formed close ties with the Trump regime. Tom Shannon, a former senior state department official who specialises in Latin America was quoted in the Financial Times saying that the third son “looked very closely at 6 January to understand what went wrong and why Trump was unsuccessful”.

Eduardo – who calls his father a “freedom fighter” –was in Washington on 6 January 2021, but declined to comment on the events. He has met Trump since Brazil’s election on 30 October last year, spending time at Mar-a-Lago and speaking to other political allies by phone. 

One of those phone calls was with Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon – the far-right thinker who who last week appeared in court to face criminal contempt charges for defying a subpoena from Congress’ 6 January committee before declaring combatively outside court that he was “taking on the Biden regime” in fighting the charges.

The pair first met in August 2018 in New York, and Bannon introduced Eduardo at an event in South Dakota in summer 2022. Bannon named him the South American representative of The Movement – his far-right project. 

Eduardo tweeted that he and Bannon shared the same views, especially on “cultural Marxism” – a far-right term and known antisemitic dog whistle.