The 2016 coup, which began with the supply of Petrobras, culminates with the privatization of the state electrical firm, Eletrobrás.
By Leonardo Attuch*
In December 1994, on the eve of his presidential inauguration, then-Senator Fernando Henrique Cardoso took the rostrum to say goodbye to parliament. The speech went down in historical past as a result of it introduced what can be the primary objective of his authorities: the burial of the Vargas period. “I firmly consider that authoritarianism is a web page turned within the historical past of Brazil. There stays, nonetheless, a bit of our political previous that also clutters the current and slows down the development of society. I’m referring to the legacy of the Vargas Period, its mannequin of autocratic growth and its interventionist State”, mentioned Cardoso.
As president, he privatized lots however not the whole lot. One in all his desires – that of remodeling Petrobras into a personal firm referred to as “Petrobrax” – failed. And, as everybody is aware of, he handed a broke Brazil firmly within the pocket of the IMF over to his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Whereas asserting the invention of the pre-salt off shore oil reserves, Lula and his then Minister of Mines and Power, Dilma Rousseff, emulated a symbolic gesture of former president Getúlio Vargas by staining their fingers with Brazilian oil, which they referred to as the “passport to the longer term”.
However in a Brazil now managed by entreguista oligarchs and the navy, the pre-salt reserves have turn into a curse. Beginning with the June protests in 2013 and billionaire-supported actions like Vem pra Rua, which was bankrolled by Ambev proprietor Jorge Paulo Lemann, the coup d’état towards former president Dilma Rousseff started to maneuver ahead. The principle objective was to switch the revenue from pre-salt layer petroleum extraction from the Brazilian public into the fingers of Petrobras’ non-public shareholders.
Shortly after Dilma’s departure, the primary measure adopted by the usurper Michel Temer was to alter the regulatory framework and value insurance policies for petroleum and pure gasoline. Immediately these insurance policies are a main explanation for Brazilian inflation and the truth that 33 million individuals are actually affected by starvation. With the 2018 elections, carried out by establishments managed by oligarchs that supported Lula’s arrest, Jair Bolsonaro and Paulo Guedes arrived in energy with the mission to deepen Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s agenda of “burying the Vargas period”.
Till just lately, the one criticism leveled by the neoliberal and company media towards Guedes was the truth that he had not delivered any related privatization. Unemployment, mediocre progress and inflation weren’t the issue. On the night time of Thursday, June 9, Guedes lastly managed to ship a privatization: that of Eletrobrás, bought at midnight and at a cut-rate value.
Constructed with the blood, sweat and tears of the Brazilian individuals, Eletrobrás is now managed by native and worldwide funds. The biggest non-public shareholders are actually the 3G group, owned by Jorge Paulo Lemann and his companions at Ambev, and Banco Clássico, owned by José Abdalla Filho. The supply of the corporate by Jair Bolsonaro has not been designed to ensure low-cost vitality for Brazilian growth. Quite the opposite: it’s an underdevelopment undertaking, which goals to make Brazilians extra vitality environment friendly with the intention to assure returns to shareholders, who’re already billionaires.
Bolsonaro might not have the identical training stage as Fernando Henrique Cardoso, however he has been far more environment friendly in finishing up his financial agenda, which consisted of destroying the Brazilian state to counterpoint a small group of parasitic oligarchs. In observe, he managed to bury the Vargas Period, that of a nationalist former president who, in his well-known closing letter, identified the forces behind his suicide. “I needed to create nationwide freedom within the enhancement of our wealth by Petrobras and, as quickly because it began to work, a wave of agitation swelled. Eletrobras was obstructed to the purpose of despair. They don’t want employees to be free”, wrote Vargas.
These forces that drove Vargas to suicide are the identical forces that overthrew Dilma and imprisoned Lula. And when the previous president returns, if he does, they are going to be united, sponsoring newspaper editorials to attempt to persuade Brazilians that Petrobras‘ pricing coverage can’t be modified and that “contracts”, such because the privatization of Eletrobrás, can’t be undone.
In his suicide notice, Vargas despatched a message to the longer term. “I select this manner of all the time being with you. When you find yourself humiliated, you’ll really feel my soul struggling at your aspect. When starvation knocks at your door, you’ll really feel the vitality in your chest struggle for you and your kids. Once they vilify you, you’ll really feel the power to react. Could my sacrifice maintain you united and should my title be your banner of battle. Could each drop of my blood be an immortal flame in your conscience and uphold the sacred vibration for resistance. To hate I reply with forgiveness. And to those that suppose they’ve defeated me, I reply with my victory. I used to be a slave of the individuals and in the present day I free myself to everlasting life. However the individuals whose slave I used to be will not will probably be anybody’s slave. My sacrifice will ceaselessly stay in your soul and mine. blood would be the value of your ransom. I fought towards the damage of Brazil. I fought towards the damage of the individuals. I’ve fought with an open coronary heart. Hatred, infamy and slander didn’t break my spirit. I gave you my life. Now you I supply myself n demise. I concern nothing. Serenely I take step one on the trail of eternity and depart life to enter historical past,” he wrote.
*Leonardo Attuch is Editor of Brasil 247
This text, which was translated by Brian Mier, initially appeared in Brasil 247 and could be learn in its authentic Portuguese here.
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