The Brazilian Highway Police confirmed this Thursday that all the blockades that completely obstructed the passage on the country’s roads, orchestrated by Bolsonaro truckers who did not accept the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as president-elect, were lifted.
In its social networks, the agency reported that all federal routes were free of blockades. The Highway Police also reported that only five partial barriers remain in two of the twenty-seven Brazilian states, one of them located in the Brazilian Amazon, in Pará state, as well as in Mato Grosso, bordering Bolivia and Paraguay.
Since Jair Bolsonaro lost the presidential ballot this Sunday with 49.1 percent to the winner, Lula Da Silva, who won 50.9 percent, the authorities have cleared 962 blockades throughout the country. This Thursday night there were 34 total or partial blocks compared to more than 250 on Tuesday.
According to the same security force, these blockades caused problems for the movement of people and the transport of goods. The National Confederation of Industry He had warned this Tuesday of an imminent risk of shortages and lack of fuel in case the routes were not quickly unblocked.
After three days obstructing the country’s main highways, the blockades were lifted more quickly this Thursday after a message from President Bolsonaro, who through a video published on his social networks, on Wednesday night, asked for respect for the right to mobilization of the people, although he did not admit his defeat.
Although Bolsonaro criticized the roadblocks, gave its support to other types of protests, without blockades, against the victory of the former president, who will govern the country for the third time from January 1 after two terms between 2003 and 2010. In the two days following the ballot, the head of state kept the country on edge by keeping silent about the result, an attitude that, according to his critics, fueled the proliferation of protests.
“Free the highways,” asked the leader of the extreme right, who stated that the movement that supports him cannot lose its legitimacy. “Throughout this time at the head of the Presidency, I collaborated so that patriotic sentiment, love for the Homeland and the green and yellow colors of the flag, the defense of the family and freedom resurface, and we cannot get away from that” , he indicated. Also, in an apparent allusion to his defeat at the polls, he stated that he was sad and angry, but said it was “necessary to keep our heads in place”.
A viralized video showing Bolsonarists allegedly giving a Nazi salute during a protest against Lula’s victory sparked controversy in Brazil, to the point of prompting an official investigation and condemnation from the Israeli and German embassies. The images show dozens of supporters of the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro with their arms extended towards the front, while singing the Brazilian national anthem, in an act carried out this Wednesday on a blocked route in San Miguel do Oeste, state of Santa Catarina (south) .
The gesture was first assimilated to the greeting of Nazi Germany by users who reproduced the video on social networks and denounced the apology of Nazism, punishable by Brazilian law. However, many denied this association and attributed the gesture to a salute to the Brazilian flag, unrelated to Nazism.
As a result of the controversy, the The Public Ministry of Santa Catarina opened an investigation that established, in a preliminary way, that there is no evidence that it was an act of apology for Nazism. The existence of Nazi symbols in the place was also not proven. The gesture of the demonstrators supposedly responded to a request from the announcer of the event, to “extend your hand on the shoulder of the person in front, or if there is none, to extend your arm, to emanate positive energies,” according to a note released by the Prosecutor’s Office this Wednesday.
But the video, which has racked up two million views on social media since Tuesday, continued to cause controversy. “The use of Nazi and fascist symbols by clearly far-right ‘demonstrators’ is deeply shocking. Apology for Nazism is a crime!” German Ambassador to Brasilia Heiko Thoms wrote on Twitter on Thursday. The diplomat considered the gesture disrespectful to the victims of Nazism and its horrors.
For its part, the Israeli embassy issued a statement on Thursday in which it asked the authorities to take the necessary measures to put an end to this type of outrageous events. In addition, the Israelite Confederation of Brazil (Conib) described the images as “disgusting” and pointed out that Brazilian society cannot tolerate positions like that, in a note published this Wednesday.
The president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) of Brazil, Alexandre de Moraes, condemned this Thursday the anti-democratic acts promoted by Bolsonaroism in the face of the victory at the polls of progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“The elections are over and democracy has won again,” the magistrate said at a TSE session. “There is no way to contest the result with illicit, anti-democratic and criminal movements,” he remarked.
“This is democracy, alternation of power, and those responsible for these acts will be investigated and punished under the law,” said De Moraes. The magistrate also extended his congratulations to the vast majority of society, which demonstrated his democratic vocation and underlined his support for the rule of law.