Opinion: now Brazil is experiencing real terrorism in Rio Grande do Norte; on January 8 that was none

By Alexandre Garcia

(Opinion) At least 18 municipalities in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte have suffered criminal attacks on public property and buildings; suspected drug traffickers are retaliating.

There is no more prohibition or censorship, so the truth is coming.

Look at the argument I heard – and in the United States, they are discussing this a lot – about what they did during the pandemic.

Guess if the pharmaceutical industry would lose a US$200 billion business because of cheap drugs like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

So they convinced most people that there was no treatment for the disease and that they had to buy the experimental vaccine.

It is obvious. This is about the market and money.

Speaking of the market, ten banks have already given up offering payroll loans to retirees after the government set the interest rate at 1.7%.

The banks are already pulling out because the government has a habit of meddling in private matters, which will hurt retirees.

By the way, the interest rates in Argentina are 78%, and our Minister of Finance wanted to make a single currency with them; can you guess that?

There is no way not to compare governments.

LULA ENTERS THE FIGHT OVER THE RITE OF PROVISIONAL MEASURES

Everyone in the Chamber is commenting that President Lula is pressuring Representatives because the theses of the President of the Chamber, Arthur Lira, about the processing of provisional measures are prevailing, contrary to what Lula and the President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, defend.

So Lula decided to act; the Executive Branch is interfering in the Legislative Branch.

Poor Legislative Branch: it should be the first of the powers, but it is the last.

The Supreme Court interferes, the Executive Branch interferes, and the President of the Republic interferes.

The previous President, perhaps because he was a congressman for almost 30 years, always respected the independence and autonomy of the Legislative and never meddled in the political negotiations, which are done by the political parties, their leaders, and presidents.

JANUARY 8 DID NOT YIELD A SINGLE INDICTMENT FOR TERRORISM

We already have 1,037 reported for January 8, and no one has been reported for terrorism.

The most severe crimes are aggravated damage, abolition of the rule of law (it makes you laugh when you say that), and coup d’état.

Most are being indicted for incitement to crime, trying to incite the Armed Forces to put down a coup, which did not happen.

So what will be left, as two federal policemen told me, is the charge of aggravated damage for those who have been proven to have broken things inside.

Still in prison are 208 men and 86 women.

Whoever called these people “terrorists” is now liable to be charged with slander, including (and especially) compensation for moral damages.

Terrorism is what is being done in Rio Grande do Norte now.

I have been a victim of terrorism.

I have covered terrorism in Argentina and Lebanon, I have seen terror classes for European terrorists in Lebanon underground, I have been kidnapped by a terrorist group (the Montoneros) in Argentina, and another terrorist group has threatened me at the other end of the ideological spectrum.

I know what terrorism is.

And what is happening now in Rio Grande do Norte is terrorism due to the weakness of the state.

Terrorism implies imposing fear on the population, and we see stores closing, private schools closing, and few people on the streets, not only in Natal but also in the countryside.

This is terrorism, which requires a reason to answer what is mixed between power and crime.

A commission in the Chamber, the Public Security Commission, wants to investigate this.

With information from Revista Oeste