Brazil – AND Editorial: The Augean Stables of the Old Democracy
We hereby share an unofficial translation of the latest editorial published by A Nova Democracia (AND) on the 27th of May.
Note: In Greek mythology, The Augean Stables refers to the vast stables of Augeas, king of Elis, which had not been cleaned for many years and were cleaned by Hercules in a single day. The expression “Augean stables” has come to mean an accumulation of all kinds of filth and rubbish, or a state of extreme neglect and disorder.
In mid-May, it came to light that banking magnate Daniel Vorcaro, the central figure in the biggest corruption scandal since “Lava Jato,” had secret ties to Flávio “Rachadinha” Bolsonaro, a far-right presidential hopeful. This involves the multi-million-dollar financing of the film Dark Horse, a cinematic production designed to sell the public—in English, “enrolation”—the heroic image of “Slave catcher” Jair Bolsonaro. This political operation, a piece of electoral propaganda, funded by the banker’s money and produced in the United States (US) to relaunch the farce of the “myth” internationally. But now the mud has splashed too high for the moralistic fraudsters of the far right to pretend they are clean.
Such is the morality of Bolsonaro’s supporters: they spend years railing against “the system,” but when you lift the rug, there they are on their knees before the same old financial counter. After all, to whose surprise? The far right, which poses as incorruptible, patriotic, and anti-establishment, turns out to be neck-deep in dealings with the very banker it claimed to be fighting. Son No. 1, who until yesterday was tasked with pinning the scandal on the PT, found himself forced to explain why he was asking for, brokering, or collecting money from the very tycoon he portrayed as the embodiment of others’ corruption. Who knows, perhaps Flávio “Rachadinha” has now regretted focusing his fire on Vorcaro, presenting him as the mastermind behind the worst corruption case in recent years; perhaps it was Vorcaro himself who leaked the material that was later published, to silence the pro-Bolsonaro rats?
The whole farce is only made more ridiculous by the film’s script—which has already been leaked—and which goes so far as to hilariously portray Bolsonaro as a heroic, persecuted, and almost providential figure. It goes so far as to describe him as a man who is “tall, handsome, intelligent, quick to smile, and funny”—something that could only have come from the pen of Mário Frias, “The Passionate One,” or from Michelle Bolsonaro’s marital devotion. Mário Frias, incidentally, in addition to explaining this peculiar admiration for Bolsonaro, now has to answer for the “rachadinha” allegations, showing that he has learned very well from his beloved members of the Bolsonaro clan.
All the well-deserved ridicule aside, the situation poses a problem for the Bolsonaro clan. The “Slave catcher,” in order to continue dominating the right-wing/far-right spectrum and rallying it around himself, needs someone on the presidential ticket who is completely under his control and, at the same time, capable of attracting votes and channeling them to the entire right-wing camp; if Flávio, who had been succeeding in doing so, becomes too demoralized, he may not only lose his ability to win the presidential race but also become incapable of serving as a conduit of political capital to those who support him. If that is the case, the candidacy will be at risk. Michelle, already floated within the Law PRoject as Plan B, although she is Bolsonaro’s wife, is not exactly part of the clan (and has terrible relations with Bolsonaro’s sons), and, unlike Bolsonaro’s sons, she could become independent of him and launch a “solo run.” Polls indicate that Flávio “Rachadinha” is losing ground; we’ll see how long this lasts and what consequences this decline will have for the confirmation of his candidacy.
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The Vorcaro case, being something of a pariah in official political circles, is shunned by all factions, which instead turn to their rivals. But the fact is that he is in contact with all the forces of the country’s official political establishment; Vorcaro, as a representative of big capital, is multi-institutional and non-partisan; he knows no “ideological” boundaries between the fake left and the far right, between the courts of the judiciary or with your excellencies in the legislature. Vorcaro and his poorly explained connections already involve, at various levels, Flávio “Rachadinha” and Ciro Nigueira (to whom he even paid an allowance!), Luiz Inácio and the entire leadership of the PT in Bahia; Dias Toffoli and Alexandre de Moraes (Supreme Federal Court), the Office of the Attorney General, the autonomous agencies Banco de Brasília and even the Central Bank, which since the Bolsonaro administration has turned a blind eye to the damage the scam was causing to the country’s finances. Behind the curtains of the old democracy, there it is: big local capital and imperialist financial capital, ensuring that the theater—despite the characters acting on stage—proceeds according to the script they control.
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Luiz Inácio, for his part, is trying to navigate the same quagmire with the same old bag of electoral tricks: a barrage of announcements, credit lines, debt renegotiations, subsidies, tax breaks, and sector-specific programs aimed at rebuilding his faltering popular support through opportunism on the eve of the electoral farce. A survey released by the media monopoly pointed to one measure every 3.5 days; the most recent of these, the program offering up to R$ 30 billion in credit for ride-hailing drivers and taxi drivers to finance new vehicles, is marketed as relief, but in practice, it pushes precarious workers into yet another cycle of debt.
The problem is not “spending too much on the people,” as the fiscal hawks of the media monopolies—spokespersons for the rentier class—grumble. The problem is another: the opportunistic government manages the suffocation of the masses with credit, installments, subsidies, and propaganda, without touching interest rates, the banks, large landholdings, big capital, or the subjugation of the old state to the dictates of imperialism, especially Yankee imperialism. The app worker is promised a financed car; the platform continues to exploit his labor; the bank gains another debtor; the government gets a campaign photo.
On top of that, the system of exploitation and oppression continues to crush the masses. The country is increasingly becoming a vast, low-productivity farm, whose export revenues consist of 66% of exports of primary goods, which have low value on the world market. In domestic politics, the Selic interest rate remains at 14.5%, and in April, 80.9% of Brazilian households were in debt, the highest level on record. Among families with incomes of up to three minimum wages, the situation is even more dire: 83.6% were in debt. Credit has become a necessity to supplement the livelihoods of working-class families and bankrupt small landowners. At least 57.7% of the workforce is unemployed (6.1%), underemployed (14.3%), or working in the informal sector (37.3%). Wealth concentration is intensifying: the richest 10% earned 13.8 times more income than the poorest 40%. In large cities, the cost of living is rising, as in São Paulo, where the basic food basket costs R$ 906.14, or 55% of the official minimum wage. At least 23% of the population lives below the poverty line, surviving on $6.85 a day, all this despite the implementation of “compensatory policies” taken from the IMF and World Bank’s predatory playbooks and applied by the government. This is the stark reality behind the propaganda, and these are the reasons—felt in the pockets, stomachs, and minds of the masses—for the government’s persistently low approval ratings. The masses feel that what was promised has not been delivered, and nothing arouses more revulsion, indignation, and fury than feeling deceived for the benefit of others—namely, big capital, agro-exporting landowners, imperialism, and, of course, the bureaucracy of professional politicians.
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In the weakest link of the imperialist exploitation chain (Latin America), the “Great Satan” is accelerating its plans for domination. On May 23, two MV-22B Ospreys belonging to the US Marines landed in Caracas, near the US Embassy, while the aggressor’s vessels entered Venezuelan waters in the Caribbean. Leading the provocation was General Francis Donovan, head of the Southern Command. This was no minor event: it was the first US military exercise on Venezuelan soil since the January 3 attack, when troops sent by Trump invaded Caracas and kidnapped Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores.
After effectively taking the Venezuelan head of state hostage, Washington is already attempting to treat Caracas as an operational outpost of the Southern Command. It lands aircraft, moves ships, parades its generals, and calls this phased occupation “stabilization.” Here is the “Trump Corollary” in motion: subjugating Venezuela through military terror, control of oil, diplomatic blackmail, and the taming of an interim government that, regrettably, has so far proven incapable of leading any national resistance. The US does not merely want to overthrow a government; it wants to reduce the Venezuelan nation to the status of a protectorate, an intimidating showcase for all of Latin America, as a major anti-imperialist uprising sweeps through Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, and several other countries in the region.
The next target of the US’s terrorist policy to reaffirm its absolute dictatorship in the region is Cuba . The indictment of Raúl Castro by US courts, Rubio’s threats, the military mobilization in the Caribbean, and the old refrain of the “gusanos” are political, legal, and military preparations for a new aggression. The Yankees want to fabricate pretexts, blame the Cuban leadership for the misery caused by decades of the blockade, stir up internal counterrevolution, and encircle the island as they did with Venezuela. But Cuba is not the backyard of the cannibals in Washington, and the Cuban people will not bow their heads to imperialist blackmail. Cuba yes, Yankees no!
