Good morning! This week, a look at how the January 8 riots changed Brazilian politics (or not). How the Finance Ministry’s zero-deficit targets are getting harder to achieve.
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One year since the January 8 riots
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the January 8 riots in BrasĂlia, when hordes of far-right radicals stormed and ransacked the presidential palace, Congress, and the Supreme Court building in a desperate attempt to topple democracy and set the stage for a military coup that would return former President Jair Bolsonaro to power.
đ Why it matters. It was the worst assault on democracy since the end of the military dictatorship in the 1980s, and it would not have happened without the complacency of public officials.
- The former government pitted its supporters against democratic institutions, the Armed Forces allowed putschist protesters to camp outside of Army garrisons for months calling for a coup, and the authorities in BrasĂlia offered little resistance to the invasion.
Undisturbed? “Democracy is undisturbed and strengthened,” said President Luiz InĂĄcio Lula da Silva...