Opinion: Brazil’s Theater of the Absurd: Bolsonaro says “our” Army will hit the streets

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – (Opinion) Last week and this, while railing against the “cowardly” restrictions on people’s movements by local governments during the pandemic, Jair “Messias” Bolsonaro said that, if needed, “our” armed forces would “take to the streets” so as to guarantee the people’s constitutional right to go and come freely; to work; and to attend religious services.

The commander-in-chief said he has a plan to carry this out, but gave no details. As a purely hypothetical exercise, this writer will offer some “messianic” musings as to what that plan might include.

1) What could soldiers do to guarantee the people’s right to come and go freely in times of peace?

They could, while patrolling the streets, use loudspeakers to blare out orders for people to throw off their chains and leave their houses. They could demand people attend mass gatherings in public squares, wearing yellow/green shirts, celebrating their liberation. They could forbid people to wear masks when outdoors, warning that making children wear masks is child abuse, as Fox News’ Tucker Carlson has argued.  If stubborn people resist these orders and remain indoors, shock troops could invade their homes, confiscating all their masks and alcohol gel, and line them up on the sidewalks carrying signs saying “disloyal”.

2) What could soldiers do to guarantee the people’s right to work?

They could, while patrolling the streets, use loudspeakers to warn all small businesses, especially bars and restaurants, that if they do not immediately open their establishments 24/7, the Corps of Engineers will send a squad of sappers to open them. They could post “Wanted” notices on all closed buildings, with pictures of owners who closed their doors, offering a reward for information leading to their arrest. They could take over all local transportation systems, offering free rides to workers; all trains, buses and trams would obligatorily have sound systems playing the new national anthem, composed in 1970: “Eu te amo, meu Brasil, eu te amo”.

3) What could soldiers to guarantee the people’s right to attend religious services?

They could commandeer the sound systems so dear to many churches, and while patrolling the streets, broadcast hymns, homilies, and hallelujahs.  Similarly to recalcitrant businesses, they could post “Wanted” notices on all closed churches, synagogues and mosques, with pictures of the clergy who closed their doors, offering rewards. They could send the army sappers to remove all doors from religious temples. They could even order all religious buildings to display pictures, busts, statuettes and other icons celebrating President “Messias” who has guaranteed their right to worship en masse.

But enough theater of the absurd!

This writer already knows, far too well, what the armed forces in the streets of Brazil look like, for he lived here from late December 1967 to early April 1971, working as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Pernambuco and Brasília.

During those dismally repressive years, two scenes were common:

1) Uniformed soldiers, holding tommy guns at the ready, standing on busy street corners near hotels, bars and restaurants.

2) Uniformed soldiers, holding tommy guns, ordering all interurban buses to stop at checkpoints (usually military barracks or garrisons), walking up and down the aisle, checking passengers’ IDs against a list of names and photographs.

A personal note is appropriate here.

My parents visited me in February 1969, and witnessed the first scene in Recife, Pernambuco. My father asked me “Doesn’t this bother you?” I, in return, asked back, “Doesn’t what bother me?” He simply pointed to the tommy-gun-toting soldier standing caddy-corner from the hotel varanda bar where we were enjoying an afternoon libation.

Back then, it had not bothered me, because that scene, and others like it, had replicated until reaching ubiquity: it had become banal, not terrifying.

Half a century later, it not only bothers me, it terrifies me that the President of Brazil would like to resurrect those scenes and those times.