This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/world/americas/bolsonaro-protest-brazil-election.html

The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 3 Version 4
Bolsonaro Administration Agrees to Accept Loss Two Days After Election Bolsonaro Agrees to Transition, Two Days After Losing Brazil Election
(about 2 hours later)
BRASÍLIA — Two days after losing Brazil’s presidential election, President Jair Bolsonaro agreed to a transition of power on Tuesday, easing fears that the far-right leader would contest the results after warning for months that the only way he would lose would be if the vote was stolen. BRASÍLIA — Two days after losing Brazil’s presidential election, President Jair Bolsonaro agreed to a transition of power on Tuesday, easing fears that the far-right leader would contest the results after warning for months that the only way he would lose would be if the vote were stolen.
In a two-minute speech, Mr. Bolsonaro thanked his supporters, encouraged protesters to be peaceful, celebrated his accomplishments, criticized the left and said he has always followed the constitution. What was absent was any acknowledgment that he had lost the vote or that the election had been free and fair. In a two-minute speech, Mr. Bolsonaro thanked his supporters, encouraged protesters to be peaceful, celebrated his accomplishments, criticized the left and said he had always followed the Constitution. What was absent was any acknowledgment that he had lost the vote or that the election had been free and fair.
Instead, after Mr. Bolsonaro’s comments, the president’s chief of staff took the lectern and said that the government would hand over power to the incoming administration. Instead, after Mr. Bolsonaro spoke, his chief of staff took the lectern and said that the government would hand over power to the incoming administration.
“President Bolsonaro has authorized me — when requested, based on the law — to start the transition process,” said Mr. Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, Ciro Nogueira.“President Bolsonaro has authorized me — when requested, based on the law — to start the transition process,” said Mr. Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, Ciro Nogueira.
The question now remains how the president’s comments will be received by his thousands of supporters who have blocked hundreds of highways across Brazil in a bid to “paralyze” the country and somehow overturn the election.The question now remains how the president’s comments will be received by his thousands of supporters who have blocked hundreds of highways across Brazil in a bid to “paralyze” the country and somehow overturn the election.
Mr. Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that those protests “are the fruit of the indignation and feelings of injustice in the electoral process.” But he urged his supporters to halt disruptions. “Peaceful demonstrations will always be welcome,” he said. “But our methods cannot be those of the left, like property invasion, destruction of goods and restrictions on the right to come and go.”Mr. Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that those protests “are the fruit of the indignation and feelings of injustice in the electoral process.” But he urged his supporters to halt disruptions. “Peaceful demonstrations will always be welcome,” he said. “But our methods cannot be those of the left, like property invasion, destruction of goods and restrictions on the right to come and go.”
His government’s decision to begin transferring power to President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was welcome news for Brazil’s democracy. The president has long attacked Brazil’s election system as rife with fraud, despite a lack of evidence, and ahead of Sunday’s election, he had suggested that the left was trying to rig the vote. His comments appeared to do little to deter many protesters, who continued to block roads into Tuesday night. “It’s exactly what we expected. The president has always known how to recognize our support,” said Wellington Rodrigues, 41, a protester drinking a beer who had helped block a highway outside São Paulo. “We want to continue, because it’s our right to protest.”
So when the talkative politician suddenly went silent for two days, the nation was kept on edge, wondering if he would dispute his loss — much like Donald J. Trump did after he lost to President Biden. The Bolsonaro administration’s decision to begin transferring power to the leftist candidate who had defeated him, President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was welcome news for Brazil’s democracy. The president has long attacked Brazil’s election system as rife with fraud, despite a lack of evidence, and ahead of Sunday’s election, he had suggested that the left was trying to rig the vote.
Now, Brazil’s government can fully begin working toward a transition to Mr. da Silva, a leftist former president who is returning to lead Brazil 12 years after his first administration. He is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 1. During his time out of office, Mr. da Silva served 17 months in prison on corruption charges that were later thrown out. So when the talkative president suddenly went silent for two days, the nation was kept on edge, wondering if he would dispute his loss — much as Donald J. Trump did after he lost to President Biden.
Now, Brazil’s government can fully begin working toward a transition to Mr. da Silva, a former president who is returning to lead Brazil 12 years after he left office. He is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 1.
Mr. Bolsonaro did not mention Mr. da Silva on Tuesday.Mr. Bolsonaro did not mention Mr. da Silva on Tuesday.
Mr. da Silva’s primary challenges as president will be dealing with Brazil’s deep division. Mr. Bolsonaro received 58.2 million votes, or 49.1 percent of the ballots, the closest presidential contest in the 34 years of Brazil’s modern democracy. For people who have watched Mr. Bolsonaro’s three decades in politics — a stretch in which he had never lost an election until Sunday — his reaction was not surprising. He has long been a politician driven by his emotions who rails against the political establishment and casts himself as a victim of a conspiracy by the left.
Many of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters consider Mr. da Silva a criminal and many have lost faith in the integrity of Brazil’s elections — both views stoked by the far-right leader. In the two days following his loss, Mr. Bolsonaro’s ministers and a Supreme Court justice pushed him to concede, according to four government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings. The officials had stressed that the final decision on what Mr. Bolsonaro would say would be the president’s alone.
That radicalization was illustrated by the unrest across Brazil. As of Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters had set up 227 active blockades of roads in 22 of Brazil’s 27 states, according to the federal highway police. The police said they had cleared 330 other blockades since the election ended. Now, after authorizing the government transition, Mr. Bolsonaro will have little ability to reverse course, with the full weight of the Brazilian government pushing ahead, including leaders of Brazil’s Congress, the courts, the military and his own administration.
Flávia Milhorance contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro. Still, Mr. Bolsonaro and his right-wing movement will remain a major force in Brazil. His party won the most seats in Congress this month and his allies now run Brazil’s three biggest states. “Our dream is more alive than ever,” Mr. Bolsonaro said on Tuesday.
Mr. da Silva will also have to confront Brazil’s deep division. He was elected in the closest presidential contest in the 34 years of Brazil’s modern democracy, winning 50.9 percent of the vote, to Mr. Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent. Mr. Bolsonaro received 58.2 million votes.
Many of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters consider Mr. da Silva a criminal; he served 17 months in prison on corruption charges that were later thrown out. And polls show that three out of four of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters have lost faith in the integrity of Brazil’s elections, in part thanks to his years of attacks on the nation’s election system.
The radicalization of some on Brazil’s right was illustrated by the unrest across the country. As of Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters had set up 213 active blockades of roads in 21 of Brazil’s 27 states, according to the federal highway police. The police said they had cleared 392 other blockades since the election ended and issued 438 fines related to the protests.
Protesters said that they were trying to create enough of a disruption that the military would intervene, enabling the president and the armed forces to overturn the election.
“We want the truth about the voting machines,” said Reginaldo de Moraes, 45, an evangelical pastor who echoed Mr. Bolsonaro’s conspiracy theories. He was standing on the side of the main highway leading to São Paulo’s airport, which he had helped block for hours. “We don’t believe them,’’ he said, “and we want the Army to take over and count the votes correctly.”
There has been no credible evidence of fraud in Brazil’s voting machines since they were introduced in 1996, and independent security experts say that while the machines are not perfect, multiple layers of security prevent fraud or errors.
Concerns about postelection unrest were heightened after it appeared, that in many locations, the federal highway police were allowing the road blockades. On Monday, three federal highway police officers stood and watched as protesters blocked the main highway between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil’s two largest cities.
Late Monday, Alexandre de Moraes, a Supreme Court justice, ordered the federal highway police and state police to clear all national highways. Under the order, the director of the federal highway police faced arrest if his agency did not comply.
Federal police did increase enforcement on Tuesday. After the blockade outside São Paulo’s main airport forced the cancellation of 25 flights, the federal highway police sprayed a chemical agent to clear protesters off the road.
There was little sign, however, that the protesters were prepared to give up. More than 200 blockades were still active after Mr. Bolsonaro’s speech, and in groups on Telegram, a messaging app, many of his supporters framed the president’s comments as a tacit support of their movement.
Many protesters claimed that with enough time, the military would be forced to intervene. A military spokesman said on Tuesday that the blockades were a police matter.
Marco Territo, the federal highway police’s second in command, told reporters on Tuesday that his agency was struggling with the protests. “It is a very complex operation,” he said. “We have points with up to 500 protesters, stopped trucks, children in arms.”
The protests have disrupted transportation and commerce across the country, as trucks carrying fuel, food and other goods have gotten trapped in the miles-long backups.
Across the southern state of Santa Catarina, 80 percent of gas stations had run out of gas by Tuesday, according to a spokeswoman for Sindipetro-SC, a fuel sellers’ union.
Braspress, one of Brazil’s largest freight shippers, said the blockades had affected 60 percent of its operations. And the Butantan Institute, a large vaccine maker, said a truck carrying embryonic chicken eggs needed to produce about 1.5 million shots against a new flu variant was stuck behind a blockade near São Paulo for about eight hours on Tuesday, putting the eggs at risk of spoiling.
Transporters were delaying sending many trucks loaded with perishable cargo in an effort to minimize disruptions, said Edeon Vaz Ferreira, who leads a logistics group linked to the Association of Brazilian Soybean Producers.
“Obviously this gets in the way,” he said. “Because one or two days doesn’t have a huge impact. But a third or fourth day can be really disruptive.”
Victor Moriyama and Laís Martins contributed reporting from São Paulo, Ana Ionova and Flávia Milhorance from Rio de Janeiro and Gustavo Freitas from Brasília.