“Fake news” hysteria set to take center stage in Brazil’s October elections
By
Miguel Andrade
24 January 2018
Under the pretext of guarding Brazil’s October presidential election against the impact of “fake news,” security agencies are seeking to amass vast repressive powers that will have a lasting impact upon decaying Brazilian democracy, regardless of the immediate electoral outcome. With such measures, the Brazilian bourgeoisie is preparing itself for the inevitable eruption of class struggle in reaction to the sharp turn to the right taken by Brazilian politics since the last election in 2014 and subsequent ouster of President Dilma Rousseff from the Workers Party (PT) on trumped-up charges of budget manipulation in 2016, in favor of her vice president, Michel Temer.
As in 2014, Brazil will elect, between October and November, the president, the governors of all 26 states and the autonomous capital, Brasília, as well as all of the state parliaments, the whole 513-strong Lower House of the Federal Congress and two-thirds of the 81-strong Senate.
The front-runner in the presidential polls is former PT President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, followed by the fascistic congressman and former army captain Jair Bolsonaro. A ruling by a Porto Alegre appeals court scheduled today on Lula’s conviction on corruption and money laundering charges, the first in a series, may ultimately decide the fate of his candidacy.
In anticipation of the election, top officials, including Defense Minister Raul Jungmann, several Supreme Court members, and the chiefs of the Federal Police (PF) and the intelligence agency, the ABIN, have made declarations affirming that the alleged threat of “fake news” justifies the use of a 1983 National Security Law that forbids “the…