From Friends of the Earth International

Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean call for the creation of an internationalist anti-fascist front, in line with the Continental Action for Democracy and against Neoliberalism (Jornada Continental por la Democracia y Contra el Neoliberalismo)

Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean stand in solidarity with Brazilian movements and organizations, and the Brazilian people as a whole, faced with Jair Bolsonaro’s rise to power. We consider Bolsonaro to be a representative of the continent’s fascist far right. We stand in full support in these difficult times that shall find us united as sisterly and brotherly peoples in resistance and with effective solidarity, which we must now build and crystalize more than ever before.

Despite having won the majority of votes, we know Bolsonaro’s political strategy is based on attacking hard won peoples’ rights and liberties, which delegitimizes him completely and shows the true face of the neoliberalism he represents. His racist, homophobic and sexist arrogance is widely recognized in his speeches, statements and actions threatening the lives of the people who, organized as political subjects of change, have collectively defended the peoples’ territories and rights, and who have worked to construct a country and a region where participation of the popular classes, workers, indigenous communities, black communities, women, youth and public officials – including from the health and education sectors – is secured.

Since the coup d’état perpetrated against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2016, the Brazilian people have faced the dismantling of the social achievements won in the previous years through the participation of society. The recent victory of the right-wing in elections and the potential implementation of the policies imposed by the transnational corporate-driven model, to which Bolsonaro responds, will mean moving deeper in this perverse direction, with a rapid increase of violence and militarization of the territories and politics. This is already being felt by activists and peoples’ rights defenders, and against everyone and anyone that does not adjust to a discipline and normalization model that is typical of fascist regimes.

The national elites have colluded with transnational corporate-driven interests – mainly of oil and agribusiness corporations that have been denounced as collaborators in the coup d’état that imposed Michel Temer’s neoliberal administration in 2016 – to secure the conservative restoration of the model and its continuity, deploying entrenched manipulative corporate media actions to lock it in.

The methods used in countries like Colombia and Honduras to shut out popular participation and distort reality on the basis of the depoliticization of society, are now being used in Brazil with the support of faith-based sectors with totalitarian inclinations; violence, criminalization and defamation have also been used against political opponents, in the same way and with the same results.

Fascism’s electoral victory in Brazil further compounds the threat of a military invasion in Venezuela, as suggested by the United States with behind-the-scenes backing from the Colombian right-wing administration. We therefore also stand now in solidarity with the Venezuelan people who have resisted the imperialistic invasion for years.

We are the federation of organizations in the Latin American and Caribbean region that struggle for environmental, social, economic and gender justice as the basis for sustainable societies. In the face of this critical moment for the region, and with the understanding that the threat to the Brazilian people is a threat to all peoples in the world, we call for the creation of an internationalist anti-fascist front, in line with similar calls by other allied movements and organizations, in the framework of the Continental Action for Democracy and against Neoliberalism (Jornada Continental por la Democracia y Contra el Neoliberalismo).

Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean – ATALC

For more on this story go to: https://www.foei.org/news/resist-jair-bolsonaro-fascism