Electoral High Courts’ Alexandre de Moraes and his newly created imperial superpowers to curtail freedom in Brazil

“The spirits I summoned, I now can’t rid myself of.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Alexandre de Moraes retains the Electoral Hight Courts TSEs exceptional superpowers even after the elections, continues to persecute conservatives, and lets it be known that he will not stop.

At the same time, Brazil is experiencing a veritable popular uprising, with millions of citizens taking to the streets and protesting in hundreds of cities every day.

They are protesting against Alexandre de Moraes and his superpowers, against censorship, against the curtailment of freedom, and, above all, for a neutrally supervised audit of the elections.

But let’s start at the beginning.

On Oct. 20, ten days before the second round of elections, the president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes, approved a resolution that gave the Court imperial powers until the election results were announced.

From that day on, the Court decided what could and could not be published on social networks, under the threat of removing content without the right to defense and handing the case over to the Federal Police.

This date marks the return of censorship in the country, which had been abolished since the end of the military regime in the 1980s.

During the vote, the embarrassed voice of Justice Cármen Lúcia attracted attention. She accepted the motion of no confidence proposed by Alexandre de Moraes but acknowledged that this could be a step into the ‘unknown’.

“This is a special case, and we are about to go to the second round of elections,” she said.

“The proposed freeze will be in place until Oct. 31 so that voters’ security and electoral freedom are not affected.”

“However, if it turns out that this leads to censorship, this decision should be revised immediately.”

The elections ended on the evening of Oct. 31. But censorship from the pen of Alexandre de Moraes did not stop but has instead intensified.

In the past two weeks, the social media accounts of at least seven deputies allied with President Jair Bolsonaro and journalists and digital influencers have been blocked.

One of the most bizarre cases was that of economist Marcos Cintra, former finance minister and opponent of the president in the elections.

He was a vice candidate on Soraya Thronicke’s list. Cintra lost his Twitter account and had to make a statement to the federal police.

What crime was committed?

Cintra questioned why some Roraima and São Paulo polling stations did not register votes for Bolsonaro in the second round.

The Harvard doctoral student and vice president of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) said the TSE owes “convincing explanations.”

He did not question the election’s legitimacy or incite demonstrators to protest the election results.

KAFKAESQUE PROCESS

Moraes’ monocratic decisions are confidential, that is, secret. They do not have to be justified. He censors as he sees fit, and Brazil has to swallow it.

La Loi c’est Moi.

The censored persons are subjected to a Kafkaesque process – they do not know what they are accused of, let alone what they must do to escape the cycle.

The only communication comes from the platforms stating that the accounts have been “withheld” by the order of the TSE.

“We can’t provide any more information about the process or give legal advice, but you can contact a lawyer for that purpose,” it says on Twitter.

“He simply asked a legitimate question,” said Roberto Delmanto Junior, Cintra’s attorney.

“Every citizen has the right to ask the authorities a question. I am firmly convinced that there was no crime.”

The judge, Alexandre de Moraes, justifies his decision by saying that it would have been an attack on the TSE and that this could constitute a crime against the democratic rule of law and an electoral crime.

However, these do not exist because the election has already ended.

Moraes argues that there is an orchestrated movement behind the popular demonstrations that have spread since the election results.

He has branded the protests outside army barracks across the country as undemocratic – which falls into the realm of legal aberration that the Supreme Court’s constant investigation of Fake News has become.

However, since neither Alexandre de Moraes nor the police intelligence services (civil, military, and highway police) have identified the leaders on the street, the option has been to silence the profiles of those who comment on the issue on social networks.

The rule is that anyone who questions the electoral process or recognizes the legitimacy of the protests in the barracks will be treated like a criminal.

“Those who criminally do not accept the outcome of the elections, those who criminally commit anti-democratic acts will be treated like criminals,” Moraes said last week.

On Friday, Nov. 11, the Navy, Army, and Air Force commanders issued a public communication defending the guarantee of peaceful demonstrations and condemning the “restriction of rights by state agencies” and “excesses” in actions throughout the country “that may limit individual and collective rights or endanger public safety.”

The document addressed “to the institutions and the Brazilian people” is a clear message to the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior Electoral Court.

Without naming names, the letter states that the role of the armed forces is essential to guarantee the rights enshrined in the Constitution, including freedom of thought and assembly and the right to come and go.

Regarding the legislature, the text states that the People’s Chamber is the natural recipient of the wishes and demands of the people, “in whose name it legislates and acts, always seeking to correct possible arbitrariness or autocratic errors that could endanger the higher good of our society, namely its freedom.

REACTIONS AGAINST THE NEWS BLACKOUT

However, the National Congress has never been so cowardly and silently accepted the persecution and imprisonment of deputies.

Faced with the complicit silence of Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), some parliamentarians are pushing for a vote on Bill 371/2022, which could stop the TSE’s superpowers.

The grouping is led by gaucho Senator Lasier Martins (Podemos).

“In Brazil, there continues to be notorious censorship in various forms, whether in posts or the profiles of blocked people. There is a climate of intimidation, threat, and fear. The risks of being punished by the authority that today acts like an emperor in Brazil: Minister Alexandre de Moraes” (Lasier Martins)

Martins is the author of one of the petitions for the impeachment of Alexandre de Moraes, which always have the same goal: the dismissal of the Pacheco cabinet.

No plenário, cobrei hoje (8) uma ação contra as medidas arbitrárias do #TSE que instauraram um clima de censura, afrontando dispositivos constitucionais. Pedi a votação do meu PDL371/2022, que susta resolução que concedeu ao TSE poderes extraordinários durante o período eleitoral pic.twitter.com/YMlZxdPeiK

— Lasier Martins (@lasiermartins) November 8, 2022

In the Plenary today (8), I filed a complaint against the arbitrary measures of the #TSE that have created a climate of censorship and violated constitutional provisions. I asked for a vote on my PDL371/2022, which suspends the decision granting the TSE extraordinary powers during the electoral period. 

– Lasier Martins (@lasiermartins) November 8, 2022

In the plenary session of the Supreme Court, the only dissenting vote so far has been that of Justice André Mendonça, the Court’s newest member.

“We all have the task, on the one hand, to respect the peaceful demonstrations and, on the other hand, to ensure a pacification of the national environment that will help us move forward and create a good perspective for the future,” said the Justice, who recognized the protests against Lula da Silva as legitimate.

Vice President Hamilton Mourão, a senator-elect, also reacted Tuesday (Nov. 8), saying, “Patriots are courageously resisting the hatred that leads to censorship being used as a cowardly weapon to jeopardize free debate and democratic questioning.”

PRESS CONSORTIUM APPLAUDS CENSORSHIP

The election is not over just for Alexandre de Moraes. The Press Consortium has applauded the censorship imposed on conservatives and liberals.

Brazil’s ‘Pravda’ treats anyone who publishes information that contradicts its truths as a disseminator of fake news.

The headlines of the old media are now multi-adjective: “Anti-democratic coup d’état of Bolsonaristas.” And similar.

On the portal UOL, for example, one finds an average of at least ten texts a day attacking the president, blaming the team of Minister Paulo Guedes for an economic disaster that could occur in the Lula da Silva government.

Even the “secret budget,” which was criticized by the press throughout the election campaign, was renamed “amendments by the rapporteur” immediately after the election results.

Another novelty is the consortium’s delight in creating an exclusive ministry for the “natives” – the Indians.

And with the choice of names like homeless leader Guilherme Boulos and former terrorist Franklin Martins for the transition team.

Another example of the disconnect between Brasília and the street is the legislative houses.

In the Chamber of Deputies, Congressman Áureo Ribeiro (Solidarity), a Lulista from the beginning, decided to honor Alexandre de Moraes.

Despite strong protests from colleagues, he approved an award for his tenure at the TSE.

A few kilometers from Congress, while more than a hundred trucks arrived in Brasilia to extend the vigil of protesters, Petista Chico Vigilante, president of the Category Union, proposed in the District Chamber the installation of a bust of Alexandre de Moraes in the federal capital.

“He deserves a bust in every square, in every corner of this country, because of the civil courage he shows,” he said.

Likely, Alexandre de Moraes will not stop. He will continue to act outside the law.

With information from Revista Oeste