How Bolsonaro tries to bully detractors into silence

Perhaps no fruit represents the Brazilian savanna-like Cerrado biome better than the pequi. The rounded yellow fruit is very much a love-it-or-hate-it food due to its strong, unique flavor — and how dangerous it is to eat. The only way to safely eat a pequi is by gently gnawing at it, scraping the pulp away from the seed, which is studded with dozens of tiny, sharp spines. When finished, there is nothing left except the spiky, useless pit, which is why in some Brazilian states, calling someone a “gnawed pequi” is highly offensive.

And in Brazil, that curious expression has become a presidential affair.

This week, Brazil’s Justice Minister André Mendonça asked the Federal Police to investigate a man from the state of Tocantins who commissioned a billboard saying President Jair Bolsonaro is worth less than a “gnawed pequi.” Mr. Mendonça wanted the man to face trial for breaking the National Security Law — a decades-old legal instrument used by authoritarian Brazilian governments to silence critics using the “preservation of political order” as an excuse.

The current National Security Law came into force in 1983, but it took many different forms before that. One newspaper editorial from 1967, written when the law was revived, explains its core purpose: “It is the principle of internal warfare, that is, stating that threats to the nation’s welfare are not from outside, but come from our people’s behavior.”

That description ties in with how...