At a Capitol Hill news conference held by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil and a renowned Brazilian journalist raised the alarm over the future of democracy and rule of law in Brazil as they recounted personal testimonies of growing political persecution used to single out opposition to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

            “Since late 2022 Brazilians have been subject to human rights violations committed by Brazilian officials on a large scale,” said Rep. Smith, the Chairman of the House Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations Subcommittee.

            “Sadly, Brazil is moving in the direction of anarchy and the rule by law—where the law is used selectively as an instrument of political power to ‘prosecute’ people as a way of silencing the opposition,” said Smith, who will chair a congressional hearing on human rights in Brazil and is preparing legislation to hold the Brazilian government to account for its abuses.

            Smith’s news conference, which comes amid an onslaught of documented violations of rule of law and judicial malfeasance in the country, included remarks by Eduardo Bolsonaro—the son of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro and a Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil.

            “I have always warned in my speeches in [Brazil’s] Congress about dangers of my country turning into a Cuba or Venezuela with their concentration camps,” said Bolsonaro. “Today, unfortunately, I live in my own movie about the gulag…My father is now persecuted and slandered in the most various ways, and as in any tyranny, the limit of the ridiculous no longer exists.”

            “We are living this right now and with not even a single word from the Biden Administration, State Department, or any governmental authority from the homeland of democracy—the United States of America,” Bolsonaro said. “Brazil, unfortunately, is not a democracy anymore.”

            More than a dozen Members of the Chamber of Deputies—including Gustavo Gayer and Marcel Van Hatten—joined Bolsonaro in traveling from Brazil to voice their serious concerns over the increasingly dire situation.

            “We no longer have the privilege of saying the truth, saying what we think, giving our opinion,” said Gustavo Gayer. “All these institutions that are valuable for democracy have been kidnapped and are served as an instrument of oppression. They are served only as to arrest and oppress people for their opinions.”

            “Many other congressmen are not here today because they have had their passports seized,” Gayer added.

            “What we are experiencing in Brazil right now is a developing dictatorship,” said Marcel Van Hatten. “Different than other dictatorships, however, the one we are seeing in Brazil is built in a more subtle and dangerous way. The judicial system itself is leading the institutional rupture, which makes it more difficult for the world to understand the sad and dangerous process.”

            Paulo Figueiredo, an Award-winning Brazilian journalist, also shared his story and spoke to the silencing of journalists in Brazil.

            “Until 2022, I was the most-watched political journalist in the country during prime time on cable TV,” said Figueiredo, who noted he had 5 million followers across various social media platforms at the time. “Then, overnight, my social media was blocked in Brazil, my Brazilian passport was canceled, and my bank accounts were frozen by order of the Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes.”

            “Dozens of journalists are being persecuted, with several also exiled here in the US,” Figueiredo continued. “Thousands—tens of thousands—of ordinary citizens have had their social media taken down by the same Alexandre de Moraes.”

            Andres Martinez-Fernandez, Senior Policy Analyst for Latin America at The Heritage Foundation, echoed the seriousness of the situation: “What we’re observing is a very dangerous decline in the basic fundamentals of democracy and human rights in Brazil. The attendance that we have here from these prominent leaders in Brazil coming all the way here to highlight this challenge underlines the gravity of the situation in Brazil.”

“These men and women are absolutely courageous,” said Smith, “and their eloquent defense of the people of Brazil and bold message need to be heard by Congress, the White House, the State Department—and frankly, the world.”

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