Putschist protests are getting smaller, but more radicalized

Since Brazil’s presidential runoff election on October 30, groups supporting President Jair Bolsonaro have sought to disrupt the country with protests, in an effort to prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office as the country’s next president on January 1, 2023. Their actions have been enabled by government omission and complacency from the military and police forces.

While the transition of power seems to be happening in a business-as-usual manner in Brasília — with the next government negotiating with Congress over next year’s budget and the power center of gravity already shifting towards Lula — putschist pro-Bolsonaro demonstrations underline the deeply-rooted divisions in Brazilian society.

For the past three weeks, supporters of the president have blocked roads and camped outside of Army garrisons in an attempt to strangle the country and call for a military coup d’état. While far from the worst-case scenarios political observers and power brokers had considered (i.e. a full-blown attempt to challenge the election, led by Mr. Bolsonaro), there is a worrisome process underway in Brazil.

These groups are staging what political scientist Bruno Wanderley Reis, head of the Philosophy and Human Sciences Department at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, described as a strategy of “wearing out and destabilizing” institutions. 

In the week following the elections, the president’s supporters were behind over 1,000 road blockades and obstruction points. Over 60 percent of cargo in Brazil is transported via trucks, which meant these protests posed instant threats to supply chains. 

After an initial moment of complacency from the Federal Highway Police (PRF, headed by a pro-Bolsonaro group), the Supreme Court ordered the clearance of roads, and the PRF boss was placed under investigation for alleged malfeasance. 

Things briefly seemed to have returned to normal. But road blockades are now back — notably in the state of Mato Grosso, an agricultural powerhouse.

While smaller in number, this new wave of protests is more radical than the first. During the weekend, a highway toll booth in Mato Grosso was attacked by hooded armed men participating in a nearby blockade and completely destroyed. An ambulance and a tow truck were torched.

In a report, the...