Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva and his allies in the judicial branch have turned Brazil into a “dictatorship” that is persecuting dissidents, political leaders, and journalists while violating basic human rights, a coalition of Brazilian lawmakers and journalists said in Washington on March 12.
U.S. lawmakers also expressed grave concerns about the developments, with Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) vowing to introduce legislation to address the issues raised by the Brazilian delegation.
Mr. Smith, chairman of the Subcommittee on Global Human Rights of the Foreign Affairs Committee, pointed to “very large scale” violations of human rights by Brazilian authorities.
“Documented or credibly reported rights violations in Brazil include the political abuse of legal procedures to persecute political opposition, including jailing opposition figures on spurious charges,” Mr. Smith said at a press conference alongside the Brazilian delegation.
Other abuses include violations of freedom of speech and media freedom, “including persecution of journalists, the silencing of opposition media, the banning of individuals from social media, and thinly veiled censorship laws claiming to fight so-called ‘disinformation,’” he added.
He also pointed to “many violations of the rule of law and judicial malfeasance.”
The Brazilian lawmakers came to the United States this week to sound the alarm about what they say is a major threat not just to the people of Brazil, but to the entire Western Hemisphere, including the United States.
“Americans must understand that Brazil is no longer a democracy,” Brazilian congressman Gustavo Gayer told The Epoch Times after a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Gayer led the delegation alongside fellow congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Both warned that the situation is urgent and deteriorating rapidly, comparing it to the situation in Venezuela.
“Brazil is now a dictatorship where critics are arrested and intimidated, but we will make sure the world knows about what is happening,” the prominent Brazilian opposition lawmaker said.
Brazilian courts, including the Supreme Court, are releasing actual criminals while persecuting and arresting opposition leaders, Mr. Gayer said, and he warned of a coming migration tsunami if the situation in Brazil isn’t dealt with.
“They are literally putting people in prison for their opinions,” Mr. Gayer added. “This is intolerable abuse.”
Mr. Bolsonaro, whose father is in the crosshairs, echoed those concerns, saying Brazil no longer has a democratic government.
A third member of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of its Congress, also denounced the escalating persecution taking place in his homeland.
The “dictatorship of the judiciary” must be exposed internationally and condemned by the world, Marcel van Hattem said.
Numerous other high-profile figures were scheduled to attend but were prevented from leaving Brazil by the court system, which had previously confiscated their passports. Targets of the effort included opposition chief congressman Carlos Jordy.
“He can no longer leave Brazil [to] tell the world what is happening,” Mr. Gayer said. “Many other congressmen could not be here today because they also had their passports confiscated.”
Some of their homes have been raided, too, he said.
A number of lawmakers have told The Epoch Times they are too concerned about being arrested to speak on record.
Among other developments, critics point to the arrest and persecution of various political leaders and journalists critical of the current administration, the most recent election, and the increasingly aggressive judicial branch.
Multiple senior officials in the previous Bolsonaro administration have already been arrested for allegedly plotting a coup.
The former president’s passport has also been confiscated by federal police, reportedly in preparation for arresting him.
The Global Human Rights Subcommittee was going to hold a hearing on the developments. However, multiple sources told The Epoch Times that major pressure was exerted on Democratic members of the body to block the event.
“Since late 2022, Brazilians have been subject to human rights violations committed by Brazilian officials on a very large scale,” Mr. Smith said at the press conference.
“As chairman of the Global Human Rights Committee, I am committed to supporting internationally recognized human rights in Brazil and to conducting oversight on the response of the U.S. government to these violations,” he added, vowing to chair a hearing on the human rights abuses “in the coming weeks.”
In particular, Mr. Smith, who has frequently taken a stand against the Chinese Communist Party and other human rights abusers around the world, denounced the Brazilian Supreme Court and its chief, Alexandre de Moraes.
“What I see in Brazil today, above all, in the investigations of Supreme Court justice de Moraes, is called rule by law, the opposite of rule of law,” Mr. Smith said.
“Rule of law is supposed to put aside outside politics, so that the same laws apply equally to all people,” he continued. “Rule by law, in contrast, means that while some forms and procedures of law are maintained, the law is used selectively as an instrument of political power.”
“There is vast evidence that this is exactly what is going on in Brazil today, where investigations, inquiries, media bans, content removal orders are used to single out the opposition to President Lula,” Mr. Smith concluded.
Mr. Smith said that to deal with the escalating crisis, he is preparing a bill called the “Brazil Democracy, Freedom and Human Rights Act” that will be introduced “very shortly.”
It isn’t clear what would be in the bill, but more details are expected in the days and weeks ahead.
Mr. Lula helped form the communist Latin American network known as the São Paulo Forum in partnership with communist dictator Fidel Castro, the Sandinistas, and even Marxist narco-terrorist organizations such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as FARC.
Documents show that the alliance, which governs much of the region today, seeks to rebuild in Latin America what was lost in Eastern Europe—namely, communism.
The U.S. State Department has long been aware of the network but has done nothing to stop or even condemn it, according to critics within and outside the U.S. government.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Brazilian government through its embassy in Washington and the Foreign Ministry to ask about the allegations made by the delegation. The spokesman who answered the phone said the request would have to be made by email. No response was received via email by press time.
