The situation remains just as tense in Brazil. Police fired tear gas to lift some of the roadblocks that had sprung up across Brazil on Tuesday as thousands of truckers and pro-Bolsonaro protesters refused to accept the defeat of the far-right president.
Jair Bolsonaro had always remained silent since the announcement on Sunday evening of the victory over the wire of the icon of the left Lula (50.9% against 49.1%). But the Brazilian press was buzzing with unconfirmed information about a statement before the end of the day.
“Some 200 roadblocks have already been lifted.”
Launched the day before, the protest movement on the main roads has spread, calls to support them have multiplied on pro-Bolsonaro accounts on Twitter and Telegram, noted the digital investigation team of the AFP.
The Federal Highway Police (PRF) reported at midday about 267 blockades, total or partial, in at least 22 of the 27 states of Brazil. Monday evening, only a dozen states were concerned. But according to general manager Anderson Torres “some 200 roadblocks have already been lifted”. “It is a complex operation” with “more than 75,000 kilometers of roads which requires a large number of personnel and logistics”, he said during a press conference.
“We have requested the support of the federal police, the national police and the military police (…) in order to restore order as quickly as possible to ensure the right of citizens to come and go and the movement of goods and people,” he added.
“Let them unlock”
In Novo Hamburgo, near Porto Alegre (south), the police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, noted an AFP photographer. The highway leading to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport was reopened to traffic after police intervened. Its morning blockage caused the delay or cancellation of some flights.
A convoy of trucks carrying equipment from the F1 Ferrari team was temporarily blocked at the exit of Viracopos airport, two hours from Sao Paulo but arrived “as planned at Interlagos” where the tests begin on Friday 11 of the Brazilian GP. On Monday evening, a Supreme Court judge ordered the “immediate unblocking of roads and public thoroughfares” and asked the Federal Highway Police (PRF) to take “all necessary measures”.
In Sao Paulo, Jeremias Costa says he is demonstrating “in connection with the election, in connection with the future of Brazil, with that of our children”. He says he is waiting “impatiently for a reaction from him (Jair Bolsonaro), but it’s not for Bolsonaro, it’s for Brazil, for Democracy”. “Let them unblock the roads!” (…) it’s inconceivable”, retorts Rosangela Senna, a 62-year-old resident of Rio who is waiting for a hypothetical coach departure at the bus station.
“Capitol of Truckers”
In an editorial on Tuesday, the daily O Globo called this movement the “Capitol of truckers”, an allusion to the incidents in Washington in January 2021. Road transport is essential in Brazil, a country of continental dimensions with few railroads. In 2018, a ten-day strike by truckers led to supply problems. Several leaders of this movement have dissociated themselves from the Bolsonarist truckers.
“Now is not the time to block the country. We must be united to defend our profession and accept the result (of the election). This is Democracy,” the president of the ABRAVA truck drivers association, Wallace Landim, said on Monday. Many foreign heads of state have since Sunday evening congratulated Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for his third term as head of the country, after those from 2003 to 2010.
Lula is due to officially take office on January 1, but a transition of power should begin now, if the outgoing government agrees to cooperate. Lula was invited by Egypt on Tuesday to attend COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. One of his spokespersons said he was “thinking” but “had not yet made up his mind”.