January 8 inquiry will open a new chapter in Brazil’s culture wars

The Brazilian Congress is about to create a flurry of hearings committees. 

House Speaker Arthur Lira on Monday said the House alone will be opening three inquiries to investigate the Americanas accounting scandal, a football match-fixing scandal as sports betting becomes ubiquitous in the country, and the Landless Workers’ Movement.

But all eyes will be on a joint committee pushed by pro-Bolsonaro lawmakers to investigate the January 8 riots. 

While the opposition intends to use the inquiry to mislead the public about who is to blame for the storming and ransacking of government buildings by pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators, the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is using the recently leaked video of a former cabinet minister inside the presidential palace that day as an opportunity to further portray itself as the victim of an attempted coup.

The government has long opposed the creation of the committee, fearing that the opposition would use it mostly to fuel culture wars, give pro-Bolsonaro lawmakers social media content to fire up their base, and hijack the political agenda — postponing any plans to reform the tax code, for example. 

But then, last Wednesday CNN Brasil aired surveillance footage of General Gonçalves Dias, the then-head of Brazil’s Institutional Security Office (GSI), inside the presidential palace and with an apparently friendly demeanor toward the rioters. 

The far-right used the videos to double down on its narrative that the riots...