Brazilian protesters lift truck blockades after Bolsonaro ordered transition

Brazil’s protesting truckers lifted some road blockades on Wednesday, November 2, after President Jair Bolsonaro broke a two-day silence following the presidential elections, calling for the protesters to unblock the roads.

Protests against the results of Sunday’s presidential election, which Bolsonaro narrowly lost according to the electoral court, were still blocking 156 highways in 15 states in whole or in part as of Wednesday morning, while 601 protests had already been dispersed, according to the Federal Highway Police.

That compares to more than 200 highways affected on Tuesday morning.

The protests, which threaten to disrupt Brazil’s key agriculture sector, are being held by Bolsonaro backers to show dissatisfaction with the electoral process in Brazil and Lula da Silva’s alleged victory by a margin of less than two percentage points, the tightest result in a presidential runoff in Brazil’s recent history.

Although Bolsonaro didn’t formally concede defeat in his short speech on Tuesday, he said he would follow the Constitution. He said citizens have a right to protest peacefully but asked them not to block the highways, saying these were “leftist methods.”

Bolsonaro’s Chief of Staff, Ciro Nogueira, said the president had formally allowed him to begin the government transition.

Neither Bolsonaro nor Nogueira admitted conceded to having lost.

He said it is set to start on Thursday, November 3, with Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin leading the process.

With information from Bloomberg

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