More and more roads blocked in Brazil amid popular uprising called ‘Brazilian Spring’; port of Santos affected

The PRF (Federal Highway Police) released a statement on Sunday (Nov. 20) in which it recorded 11 blockades and 27 closures (in which the flow of traffic is partially interrupted) on Brazil’s federal highways.

The total is 38, an increase of 9 points from the total confirmed on Saturday (Nov. 19).

According to the company’s last update at 8:09 a.m., the largest number of blockages was recorded in Mato Grosso (9). The other states with full blockades are Pará (1) and Paraná (1).

Ships are already starting to pile up at the entrance of the port of Santos due to blocked highways.

Santos is the largest port in Brazil and Latin America.

Since Oct. 30, supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL, right) paralyzed roads throughout Brazil in protest of possible electoral fraud in the presidential election, which the Electoral High Court TSE said Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT, left) should have won.

The number decreased in the last 15 days, and on Nov. 9, there were no more blockades and bans.

However, new disruptions were registered to start on Friday (Nov. 18).

The PRF reported Sunday (Nov. 20) that it had already reversed 1,207 of those demonstrations since it began operating.

Read the list of cities with blockades on federal highways through this Sunday morning (Nov. 20):

Sorriso-MT (3);
Lucas do Rio Verde-MT (2);
Matupá-MT;
Campo Novo do Parecis-MT;
Nova Mutum-MT;
Água Boa-MT;
Itaituba-PA;
Terra Roxa-PR.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE AGAINST THE PEOPLE

Protesters started blocking highways again because Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has frozen the accounts of several farmers and trucking companies and imposed fines of up to 1,000,000 reais (US$170,000) for participating in the demonstration for military intervention.

The magistrate’s decision is related to possible roadblocks and demonstrations in front of military barracks.

Moraes said that the information provided to the STF by the PRF indicates that entrepreneurs would finance the acts by providing a complete structure (meals, toilets, tents) “for maintaining the abuse of the right of assembly, in addition to supplying several trucks to reinforce the demonstration, which he called criminal.

However, what should be criminal about demonstrations in a democracy makes no sense to many observers.

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.

RETURN OF CENSORSHIP IN BRAZIL

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.

The Brazilian vice-president General Hamilton Mourão was the first official to call out what was really happening in Brazil.

On Friday, Nov. 18, he wrote on his Twitter account that the”highest instance of the Brazilian judiciary behaves unconstitutionally and unlawfully.”