Road blockades by Bolsonaro supporters almost all cleared

The Federal Highway Police (PRF) late on Monday morning said there are just two full blockades left on federal roads nationwide, and a further eight partial blockades. The PRF has cleared 1,048 such demonstrations over the last eight days, hundreds of which blocked traffic on roadways and threatened to cause supply shortages in multiple states.

Groups that support President Jair Bolsonaro began obstructing highways across the country after he lost re-election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on October 30. The demonstrators reject the result and are calling for a military coup to prevent the transition of power over the next two months.

The two remaining blockades are in the small cities of Palhoça, in the southern state of Santa Catarina, and Pontes e Lacerda, in the Center-West state of Mato Grosso.

As The Brazilian Report revealed, the number of PRF officers on duty on October 31, one day after the election, was 37 percent lower than on Election Day, when an unusually large number of operations on federal roads led Lula’s campaign to accuse the Bolsonaro administration of voter suppression.

Over 60 percent of all cargo is transported by trucks in Brazil, making widespread roadblocks a massive economic risk. The Brazilian airline association Abear last week showed concern that the pro-Bolsonaro highway blockades could cause fuel shortages if they persisted.

Last week, the PRF’s top brass said in a press conference they were yet to determine why hundreds of demonstrators were blocking roads across Brazil — even though the protesters were overtly supporting President Bolsonaro and challenging the electoral results.

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