This is the second post about Brazilian elections. The first one is a summary of the recent history of the country that led to the rise of fascism, from the end of the military rule in 1988 to the impeachment of president Dilma in 2016 and it focuses on Brazil’s internal politics. Today post is about American imperialism from 1988 to more or less 2007.

The next posts will deal with imperialism from 2007 to now, Brazilian politics from 2016 to now, 2022 elections and at last, what are the communists planning.

#90’s and the Washington Consensus

In 1989, the Washington Consensus was formulated. Initially, it was a series of measures recommended by financial institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and the US Treasury Department, to promote the economic development of developing countries. Obviously, this program follows the interests of the US bourgeoisie and can be seen as a guide to explain the various imperialist interventions that would take place in the coming years. Among the top 10 recommendations, the ones that interest us are privatization of state-owned enterprises, market-determined interest rates, elimination of trade protections for imports, “fiscal discipline” and deregulation - that is, neoliberalism. I highlight these points because they are, until today, basis of the Brazilian right policy-making.

The 1980s in Latin America were characterized by economic stagnation. This, together with the fall of the USSR and the crisis of communist movements in the world, leaves Latin America at the mercy of neoliberalism. The main form of US domination over the region will be economic domination through debt and privatization.

Brazil was going through a process of “redemocratization” after the end of the military rule that failed spectacularly in 88. Inflation was extremely high and economy was in shambles. Throughout the 1990s, all new “democratic” governments (Collor from 1990 to 1992 and Itamar Franco from 92 to 95) had the Washington consensus agenda as a priority. But no government followed them like that of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, or FHC, during his two terms from 1996 to 2001.

Several state-owned companies were privatized, from the communications sector (Telebrás) to Railways. However, the most emblematic case is the privatization of the largest mining company in Brazil: Vale do Rio Doce.

Created in 1942 during the Getúlio Vargas government, it operates mainly (but not only) in the state of Minas Gerais with the extraction of iron, which is exported to central countries of the capitalist system. It was and is the largest company of its kind in Brazil and supporters of its sale argued that the company was causing damage to the state and was inefficient. However, it was sold while profiting, with an extremely low price (R$ 3.3 billion at the time) and without considering the vast reserves of iron it had. Many consider this to be a crime against the country (it’s called “lesa-pátria”).

Not surprisingly, the assessment of how much the company would be worth was made by two foreign banks invited by FHC, which is further evidence of the action of imperialism in Brazilian national policies. The main excuse invented at the time was that privatization would help pay off the state’s external debt, but the external debt only grew during the period. But not just debt: misery, unemployment and the cost of living also grew. The government, however, is generally remembered for stabilizing inflation through the Plano Real.

#Pink Tide

Not every country in Latin America has bowed to the US. In 1999, Hugo Chávez was elected president of Venezuela and nationalized several key companies in the economy, and contrary to what is said by the mainstream media, this is not the cause of the Venezuelan crisis - on the contrary - during the 2010s the economy had good results.

Chavez’s importance goes beyond his anti-imperialist stance. After the fall of the USSR, he was the first to openly talk about revolution in Latin America, and his rise to power marks an important period in the region: The Pink Tide.

In Brazil, this phenomenon arrived through the election of Lula in 2002. The Lula who was elected was very different from the Lula who was a candidate in 1989. He used to talk about class struggle, but now he had a more reformist perspective. Nonetheless, his government was the most progressive in the history of Brazil.

Lula’s government can be described as “social-liberal”, as it abandoned the idea of class struggle in favor of class conciliation. To this day, Lula is proud that in his government, “businessmen never profited so much and the population never lived so well”. It was common for the government to forgive bourgeois debts and at the same time work to strengthen companies such as Petrobras and provide social assistance. However, as you well know, the interests of the bourgeoisie and the working class are irreconcilable and this policy of conciliation is the first link in a chain of events that would lead to the defeat of the PT.

However, Lula’s foreign policy was badass. Several cooperation projects between Brazil and Cuba were created, the most famous being the “Mais médicos”. He took a stand against US intervention in Libya. In addition, he sought to strengthen economic blocs in which the country participated, such as Mercosur and the BRICS and defended multipolarity. It is easy to see that no matter how moderate Lula was nationally, he was still a problem for the USA.

#FBI in Brazil

In 2004, Carlos Alberto Costa exposed himself as the head of the FBI in Brazil and denounced a series of the organization’s activities in the country. The FBI co-opted the Brazilian federal police so that they became dependent on US funding. One of the main activities carried out in Brazil was media manipulation and co-optation of ABIN (the Brazilian Intelligence Agency) which did not act to protect the country against, well, the FBI, but acted against members of the MST (Landless Workers Movement – A movement of Marxist origin). Source

In addition to subordinating the Brazilian police to foreign interests, they also had wiretaps on the president of the republic and facilitated DEA - Drug Enforcement Administration - operations in Brazil. The FBI had extensive access to Brazilian bank records and personal data. In addition, they also had wide access to federal police headquarters and Brazilian intelligence agencies. In other words, literally every kind of local intelligence department had been co-opted by imperialism. Source

Just as a side note, data on this event was very difficult to find, and I was hoping that something this serious would have had wide coverage in media, but apparently it didn’t. I wonder why. \s

MINUSTAH and the army

Lula’s foreign policy, despite being much better than several other governments, made a mistake that would prove fatal. As well as the class conciliation project, this would be another link in the chain that would lead to the defeat of the PT and the rise of fascism in Brazil.

In 2004, the president-elect in Haiti was deposed in a coup d’état. There has been US and French involvement in Haiti for many decades now and - unsurprisingly - they were also involved in the situation. The UN created a mission (MINUSTAH - United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti) to “stabilize” the situation in Haiti and Brazil agreed to lead the process militarily, while the US led the intervention politically.

The situation in Haiti was bad for a while. The country was the first republic founded by former slaves, born from a continuous and victorious struggle against the enslavers. And this is unacceptable for the west. The founding myth of the Haitian nation is anti-colonial in essence, so the only way to bend them to foreign powers is through force. It would be nice for someone to make a gigapost about Haiti. This country and the continuous intervention it suffers today is vital for us to understand how American imperialism works, since it is (along with French imperialism) what that keeps this nation on its knees.

Brazil accepted to be part of the imperialist intervention in Haiti. Ironically, in the same way that an internationalist stance that supports the liberation of peoples can contribute to its own liberation, the Brazilian stance of support for imperialism brought it into the country and with it a brutal attack on the Brazilian people. The mission in Haiti was for the Brazilian army a “rehearsal” of what was to come in Brazil.

The first leader of this operation was General Augusto Heleno. He was already in the army since the dictatorship (as a captain) and was against the redemocratization of the country. With the end of the regime he did not suffer any kind of punishment - on the contrary - he would become general and leader of MINUSTAH. In the mission, he and part of the Brazilian army spent years in contact with the US and French military. Currently, this wing of the Brazilian army is sometimes called the “Haitian wing” (“Ala Haitiana”).

In 2005 Augusto Heleno led a massacre against the Haitian population. Leaks on Wikileaks show that more than 22,000 shots were fired and more than 70 people were killed, including children and women. This operation was supposedly to fight a criminal in the region. The massacres that escalated in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the late 2000s and later in favelas across all of Brazil have a grotesque resemblance to the episode. Currently, General Augusto Heleno, who left the mission in 2005, is part of Bolsonaro’s fascist government, as are many other soldiers in the Haitian wing of the army. Most Haitians have been asking for the mission to end since 2010, but it only ended in 2016. This was an military occupation. It is the “purest” form of colonialism and imperialism. And everything the army learned in this adventure with the US was imported into the country. Massacres in favelas, of indigenous people and bourgeois oppression had never stopped after the end of the dictatorship, but with this new experience of the army, these events took on new forms and became increasingly brutal.

In the last few weeks, the army has made a series of declarations on how they are the “protectors of democracy” and even announced they will create their own elections verification team. One of the leading groups of the army setting up this coup is – you guessed it – the Haitian wing.

Another side note: While Brazil was massacring Haitians, Venezuela and Cuba helped Haiti by sending doctors and building infrastructure.

Picture: Brazilian army during the Haiti occupation