September, 06 2021, 01:59pm EDT
Over 150 Parliamentarians, Ministers, and Ex-Presidents From 26 Countries Warn of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's Plans for an 'Insurrection' on 7 September
"We are gravely concerned about the threat to Brazil’s democratic institutions."
GLOBAL
We, elected representatives and leaders from around the world, are sounding the alarm: On 7 September 2021, an insurrection will endanger democracy in Brazil.
Right now, President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies -- including white supremacist groups, military police, and public officials at every level of government -- are preparing a nation-wide march against the Supreme Court and Congress on 7 September, stoking fears of a coup in the world's third largest democracy.
President Bolsonaro has escalated his attacks on Brazil's democratic institutions in recent weeks. On 10 August, he directed an unprecedented military parade through the capital city of Brasilia, as his allies in Congress pushed sweeping reforms to the country's electoral system, widely considered to be one of the most trustworthy in the world. Bolsonaro and his government have threatened -- several times -- to cancel the 2022 presidential elections if Congress fails to approve these reforms.
Now, Bolsonaro is calling on his followers to travel to Brasilia on 7 September in an act of intimidation of the country's democratic institutions. According to a message shared by the President on 21 August, the march is preparation for a "necessary counter-coup" against the Congress and the Supreme Court. The message claimed that Brazil's "communist constitution" has taken away Bolsonaro's power, and accused "the Judiciary, the left, and a whole apparatus of hidden interests" of conspiring against him.
Members of Congress in Brazil have warned that the 7 September mobilization has been modeled on the insurrection at the United States Capital on 6 January 2021, when then-president Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to "stop the steal" with false claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential elections.
We are gravely concerned about the imminent threat to Brazil's democratic institutions -- and we stand vigilant to defend them ahead of 7 September and after. The people of Brazil have struggled for decades to secure democracy from military rule. Bolsonaro must not be permitted to rob them of it now.
Signed,
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Former Prime Minister, Spain
Fernando Lugo, Fmr President, Paraguay
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Nobel Laureate, Argentina
Noam Chomsky, Professor, USA
Yanis Varoufakis, Member of Parliament, Greece
Ernesto Samper, Fmr President, Colombia
Jeremy Corbyn, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Cori Bush, Member of the House of Representatives, USA
Jean-Luc Melenchon, Member of the National Assembly, France
Gustavo Petro, Senator, Colombia
Caroline Lucas, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Golriz Gharahman, Member of Parliament, New Zealand
Larissa Waters, Senator, Australia
Helmut Scholz, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Manon Aubry, Member of the European Parliament, France
Gonzalo Winter, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile
Heinz Bierbaum, President of the Party of the European Left, Germany
Ricardo Patino, Fmr Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ecuador
Unai Sordo, General Secretary of Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), Spain
Cornel West, Professor, USA
Maria Jose Pizarro, Member of the House of Representatives, Colombia
Juan Somavia, Fmr Director-General of the International Labour Organization, Chile
Rafael Correa, Fmr President, Ecuador
Oscar Laborde, President of Mercosur Parliament, Argentina
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, Member of the Chicago City Council, USA
Manuel Bompard, Member of the European Parliament, France
Rafael Michelini, Senator, Uruguay
Nelson Larzabal, Member of the Chamber of Representatives, Uruguay
Celso Amorim, Fmr Minister of Foreign Relations, Brazil
Ana Isabel Prera, Fmr Ambassador, Guatemala
Hugo Yasky, Secretary-General of Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina (CTA), Argentina
Mehreen Faruqi, Senator, Australia
Thierry Bodson, President of the Federation Generale du Travail de Belgique (FGTB), Belgium
Denis de la Reussille, Member of the National Council, Switzerland
Marco Enriquez-Ominami, Fmr Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile
Aida Garcia Naranjo, Fmr Minister of Women and Social Development, Peru
Jordon Steele-John, Senator, Australia
Martin Torrijos, Fmr President, Panama
Liliam Kechichian, Senator, Uruguay
Nicolas Viera, Member of the Chamber of Representatives, Uruguay
Zarah Sultana, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Claudia Webbe, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Martin Buschmann, Member of EU Parliament, Germany
Kenny MacAskill, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Mick Whitley, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Marion Fellows, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Mohammad Yasin, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Tony Lloyd, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
John McDonnell, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Kate Osborne, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Ian Byrne, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Pauline Bryan, Member of the House of Lords, United Kingdom
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Prem Sikka, Member of the House of Lords, United Kingdom
John Hendy, Member of the House of Lords, United Kingdom
Gerardo Pisarello, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Cecilia Britto, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Argentina
Gabriela Rivadeneria, Fmr President of National Assembly, Ecuador
Aina Vidal, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Daisy Tourne, Senator, Uruguay
Eric Calcagno, National Deputy, Argentina
Omar Plaini, Senator, Argentina
Marcela Aguinaga, Fmr Minister of the Environment, Ecuador
Rafael Mayoral, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Fernanda Vallejo, National Deputy, Argentina
Idoia Villanueva, Member of the European Parliament, Spain
Lucia Munoz Dalda, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Marita Perceval, Senator, Argentina
Ricardo Oviedo, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Argentina
Maite Mola, Vice-President of the Party of the European Left, Spain
Andres Arauz, Fmr Minister of Knowledge and Human Talent, Ecuador
Alicia Castro, Fmr Ambassador, Argentina
Adolfo Mendoza Leigue, Senator, Bolivia
Barry Gardiner, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Jon Cruddas, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Mary Kelly Foy, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Apsana Begum, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Maurizio Landini, General Secretary of Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Italy
Kim Johnson, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Diane Abbott, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Tahir Ali, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Sira Rego, Member of the European Parliament, Spain
Manu Pineda, Member of the European Parliament, Spain
Richard Burgon, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom
Ivan Cepeda Castro, Senator, Colombia
Daniel Caggiani, Fmr President of the Mercosur Parliament, Uruguay
Guillaume Long, Fmr Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ecuador
Jose Roselli, National Deputy, Argentina
Guillermo Carmona, National Deputy, Argentina
Arlindo Chinaglia, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Brazil
Paola Vega, Member of the Legislative Assembly, Costa Rica
Juan Lopez de Uralde, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Monica Macha, National Deputy, Argentina
Martina Velarde, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Antonia Jover, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Daniel Martinez, Fmr Mayor of Montevideo, Uruguay
Ana Merelis, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Bolivia
Perpetua Almeida, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Brazil
Carlos Ominami, Fmr Senator, Chile
Hugo Martinez, Fmr Foreign Minister, El Salvador
Scott Ludlam, Fmr Senator, Australia
Leila Chaibi, Member of the European Parliament, France
Saul Ortega, Fmr President of the Mercosur Parliament, Venezuela
Monica Xavier, Fmr Senator, Uruguay
Paulao, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Brazil
Cristina Alvarez Rodriguez, National Deputy, Argentina
Lia Veronica Caliva, National Deputy, Argentina
Fotini Bakadima, Member of Parliament, Greece
Ricardo Canese, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Paraguay
Hector Fernandez, National Deputy, Argentina
Alejandro Rusconi, International Relations Secretary of Movimiento Evita, Argentina
Amanda Della Ventura, Senator, Uruguay
Carlos Lopez, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Argentina
Juan Carlos Alderete, National Deputy, Argentina
Ruth Buffalo, Member of the North Dakota House of Representatives, USA
Adrien Quatennens, Member of the National Assembly, France
Cristian Bello, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Argentina
Alberto Grillon, Fmr Senator, Paraguay
Jahiren Noriega Donoso, Member of the National Assembly, Ecuador
Carlos Sotelo, Fmr Senator, Mexico
Nanci Parrilli, Senator, Argentina
Maria Antonieta Saa Diaz, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile
Marcia Covarrubias, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile
Bettiana Diaz, Member of the Chamber of Representatives, Uruguay
Gaston Harispe, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Argentina
Ubaldo Aita, Member of the Chamber of Representatives, Uruguay
Carolina Yutrovic, National Deputy, Argentina
Claudia Mix, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile
Clara Lopez, Fmr Minister of Labour, Colombia
Karol Cariola, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile
Roser Maestro, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Mercedes Perez, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Victoria Donda, National Deputy, Argentina
Benoit Martin, President of the Confederation Generale du Travail-Paris (CGT-Paris), France
Marisa Saavedra, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Miguel Bustamante, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Anton Gomez-Reino, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Pedro Antonio Honrubia, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Joan Mena, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Mar Garcia Puig, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Txema Guijarro, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Pablo Echenique, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Sofia Castanon, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Javier Sanchez, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Pilar Garrido, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Ismael Cortes, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain
Julio Sotelo, Member of the Mercosur Parliament, Argentina
Florence Poznanski, National Secretary Parti de Gauche, France
John Ackerman, Professor, Mexico
Karina Oliva, Fmr Gubernatorial Candidate for the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile
Florence Poznanski, National Executive Secretary of the Parti de Gauche, France
Jean-Christophe Sellin, Co-coordinator of the Parti de Gauche, France
Helene Lecacheux, Co-coordinator of the Parti de Gauche, France
Camilo Lagos, President of the Partido Progresista, Chile
Gibran Ramirez Reyes, Professor, Mexico
Katu Arkonada, Network of Intellectuals in Defense of Humanity, Mexico
Eduardo Valdes, National Deputy, Argentina
Nora Del Valle Gimenez, Senator, Argentina
Minou Tabarez Miraval, National Deputy, Dominican Republic
Yves Niveaux, Direction of the PST/POP, Switzerland
Marc Botenga, Member of EU Parliament, Belgium
Felipe Carballo, Diputado Nacional, Frente Amplio, Uruguay
Jose Miguel Insulza, Fmr Foreign Minister, Chile
Mathilde Pannot, Member of the National Assembly, France
Progressive International is an international organization uniting and mobilizing progressive left-wing activists and organizations.
LATEST NEWS
UN Chief Warns of Israel's Syria Invasion and Land Seizures
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the "urgent need" for Israel to "de-escalate violence on all fronts."
Dec 12, 2024
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
While Israel argues that its invasion of Syria does not violate a 1974 armistice agreement between the two countries because the Assad dynasty no longer rules the neighboring nation, Dujarric said Guterres maintains that Israel must uphold its obligations under the deal, "including by ending all unauthorized presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the cease-fire and stability in Golan."
Israel conquered the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1967 and has illegally occupied it ever since, annexing the seized lands in 1981.
Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Sanders Says 'Political Movement,' Not Murder, Is the Path to Medicare for All
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
Dec 12, 2024
Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
"The reason we have not joined virtually every other major country on Earth in guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right is the political power and financial power of the insurance industry and drug companies," he told Jacobin. "It will take a political revolution in this country to get Congress to say, 'You know what, we're here to represent ordinary people, to provide quality care to ordinary people as a human right,' and not to worry about the profits of insurance and drug companies."
Asked about Thompson's alleged killer—26-year-old Luigi Mangione, whose reported manifesto railed against the nation's expensive healthcare system and low life expectancy—Sanders said: "You don't kill people. It's abhorrent. I condemn it wholeheartedly. It was a terrible act. But what it did show online is that many, many people are furious at the health insurance companies who make huge profits denying them and their families the healthcare that they desperately need."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.
The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
Sanders—one of the few members of Congress who regularly talks about Medicare for All—isn't alone in suggesting that unsympathetic responses to Thompson's murder can be explained by a privatized healthcare system that fails so many people.
In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
Khanna—a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, led in the House of Representatives by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—made the case that you can recognize those stories without accepting the assassination.
"You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids," he said. "At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."
Two other Medicare for All advocates, Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), also made clear to Business Insider that they oppose Thompson's murder but understand some of the responses to it.
"Of course, we don't want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents," said Ocasio-Cortez. "We also don't want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis, and people are led to just some of the worst, not just health events, but the worst financial events of their and their family's lives."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
"Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far," she continued. "This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the healthcare to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone."
After facing some criticism for those comments, Warren added Wednesday: "Violence is never the answer. Period... I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Reports Target Israeli Army for 'Unprecedented Massacre' of Gaza Journalists
"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of Reporters Without Borders.
Dec 12, 2024
Reports released this week from two organizations that advocate for journalists underscore just how deadly Gaza has become for media workers.
Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
The organization has also filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court "for war crimes committed by the Israeli army against journalists," according to the roundup, which includes stats from January 1 through December 1.
"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in the introduction to the report. Since October 2023, 145 journalists have been killed in Gaza, "including at least 35 who were very likely targeted or killed while working."
Bruttin added that "many of these reporters were clearly identifiable as journalists and protected by this status, yet they were shot or killed in Israeli strikes that blatantly disregarded international law. This was compounded by a deliberate media blackout and a block on foreign journalists entering the strip."
When counting the number of journalists killed by the Israeli army since October 2023 in both Gaza and Lebanon, the tally comes to 155—"an unprecedented massacre," according to the roundup.
Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
IFJ lists out each of the slain journalists in its 139 count, which includes the journalist Hamza Al-Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, Wael Al-Dahdouh, who was killed with journalist Mustafa Thuraya when Israeli forces targeted their car while they were in northern Rafah in January 2024.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular