‘Places Brazil as a nation of the extreme right’, says doctor in communication about repercussions of terrorism in Brasília

Mencius Melo – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The main media outlets of the world printed, in headlines, the invasion and depredation caused in the Three Powers Square in the federal capital of the Republic: Brasilia. CNN, The Guardian, Clarín, Huffington Post, El País, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Le Monde, among others. The Washington Post compared in its headline, with video and photo montage, the invasion of Brasilia to the invasion of the Capitol, which took place in the USA, on January 6, 2021.

Britain’s The Guardian printed: “Jair Bolsonaro supporters storm presidential palace and Supreme Court”. The digital arm of the CNN network also gave prominence to the attacks and stated in its headline that: “Bolsonaro supporters break through security barriers and invade Congress and presidential palace.” The El País portal headlined saying that: “Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters invade Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court.“

For Renan Albuquerque, a post-doctorate in communication and professor at the School of Information and Communication at the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam), Brazil comes out of Sunday’s event in Brasilia with a very tarnished image. “The impact is deep and negative, because it puts, definitely, Brazil as a nation with strong representation in the global universe of the extreme right, which is supremacist and prejudiced”, he lamented.

Tragic heroes

Renan Albuquerque noted that the world mainstream press has started reporting the degree of delirium, according to him, of Jair Bolsonaro’s followers and a kind of collective outbreak. “The press, in general, reported the facts of Brasilia as a mass madness fomented by Bolsonaristas, as insane individuals, who see themselves as tragic heroes, fighting in a cosmic epic of good against evil – in this case, of Bolsonaro against Lula”, he evaluated.

According to Albuquerque, essential partners for bilateral agreements, whether in the environmental or economic area with Brazil, especially in Europe, feel the weight of the political burden left by Bolsonaro. “The repercussion of the acts, mainly in progressive European periodicals, underline that Brazil has, in recent years, started to form a collective pathology linked to authoritarianism and Bolsonaro”, he observed.

Asked about how to improve Brazil’s image abroad, Renan Albuquerque replied: “It is necessary to stop the policy of producing ignorance and consolidate fact-checking agencies (agents and funders of fake news). Moreover, prosecute and judge, in the harsh terms of the law, agents and financiers. With this, the communication sector of the Lula Government, of the center-left coalition, will show strength to stabilize the principle of civilization”, he concluded.