O 6 de janeiro do sul

The ties between the latest Brazilian and American coups run long and deep

When I heard that thousands of supporters of Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro had stormed that country’s capitol, presidential palace, and supreme court on Sunday, my thoughts turned to one of the best-known journalists in that country. Surely Glenn Greenwald, given his years of reporting on Brazilian politics and his close personal government ties (his husband is a Brazilian congressman), would have something incisive to say about —

Just kidding, I knew he’d be caught between condemning the fascist government that briefly tried to prosecute him and flattering the fascists whose support he relies on in the states. Mostly the guy was reduced to sharing widely available bare-bones details and, interestingly enough, screenshots from CNN Brazil. But Glenn did peek his head out to pummel a strawman:

Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald

Also, lots of US media commentators seem to believe that no angry protesters ever stormed government buildings, or believed their elections were the by-product of fraud, until January 6, and therefore this could only come from the US. Such self-centered, ahistorical dreck.

Indeed, that would be an absurd claim, if anyone’s made it. Pointing out the actual similarities and links between the 2021 Trumpist putsch and what Brazil’s most prominent newspaper immediately labeled a coup, on the other hand, is just an obvious thing to do.

The reason Greenwald would want to hide those obvious connections should be clear: He and his fellow Trump apologists have spent the last two years doing everything they can to minimize the seriousness of the only attempted domestic federal coup in U.S. history — part of a larger project to convince everyone that liberals are the True Enemy and that their reactionary allies pose no threat. Instead, the dual coups and ongoing ties between the Brazilian and American right are an alarm bell — a warning that the ongoing international authoritarian crisis remains the preeminent political threat to the world.

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The ties between the U.S. and Brazilian right go back decades, in a partnership defined by violent anti-communism and anti-leftism in general, shared fear and resentment of the poor, as well as differing but complementary forms of white supremacy.

In 1964, officers of the Brazilian military overthrew the left-wing President João Goulart in an