Brazil congress invasion shows similarities with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot

By JASON ZHOU ’23 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

On Jan. 8, mobs of people stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential offices in the capital of the South America country, Brasília. Images of protestors fueled with emotions holding the Brazilian flags, trashing offices with clenched fists are reminding people of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

There are parallels between the mob violence in Brazil and attack on the U.S. capitol. The supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro planned the attack on congress in hope to overthrow the newly elected government. Bolsonaro, the far-right former president, claimed that the election was false, in much the same manner that Donald Trump did after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

Bolsonaro, who has a close relationship with Trump, suggested that if he lost the coming election, it would be rigged. The misinformation circling his claim about the election loomed over the Brazilian social media months before the election results came out. The internet played a central role in stoking anger, and the Bolsonaro supporters in Brazil utilized this playbook to organize their own far-right organizations and planned protests using invisible hashtags, according to the New York Times. Twitter became the spotlight of misinformation again, reciprocating Trump and his supporters’ tweets.

Another important point to mention is the slow reaction of the national police in response to the attack. The new president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said, “The Brasilia police neglected [the attack threat], Brasilia’s intelligence neglected it.” Questions were raised as to how so many people broke through and entered some of the most important buildings in the country, which are supposed to have the most security, with few obstacles. The incompetence of national polices in both Brazil and the United States had been shown in two occasions.

However, the two attacks do not perfectly fall in line. The Jan. 6 attack was focused on stopping the official sworn-in ceremony of the results of the 2020 election, where Joe Biden would be officially inaugurated into the office. On the other hand, the new president of Brazil, Lula, was sworn into office on Jan. 1. Like Jennifer McCoy, a political scientist at Georgia State University said, the attack is more of “an expression of frustration and outrage.”

For Lula, the urgent dilemma also lies in the financial market.

“As with most countries, unrest and uncertainty in politics can cause detrimental effects to the economy.

Brazil’s situation is no differentmarkets tend to follow the mood of its consumers and country as a whole,” Kris Donaldson, Colhoun Financial Literacy Coordinator at the Hill school, said. Lula was able to

Hill students react to lifted COVID-19 restrictions in China

substantially fund social projects, which earned him a lot of votes in the presidential election. Only time will tell if the program he put forward will come to fruition.

With the uncertainty of the Brazilian political situation, foreign investors will be reluctant to continue their support. “The only way stable investing will bounce back is if there is a sense of confidence and stability in the political outlook,” Donaldson suggested.

The Brazil congress invasion has a lasting effect. Besides the economic side, it once again showed how fragile democracy is. Elizabeth Blossom Chair of Humanities Kathryn Malone said that a democratic political system is supposed to decide questions of powers through elections. The system depends on the losing candidates accepting that they lost and the general population accepting the outcome of the election and accepting its legitimacy.

“In both Brazil and United States, what you had is a systematic campaign of misinformation on the part of Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Trump in the United State,” Malone said. With the effective undermining of the legitimacy of the other side, supporters of the losing side are bound to revolt and start a revolution.

The two congress attacks showed how powerful modern communication media is to distort truth, rather than to reveal it. “150 years ago, modern communications were going to make the world safer, for democracy and representative governments because people would have such good information,” Malone said. It is very ironic in present days, as modern communication media “has made popular system that settle things by popular opinion very fragile.”

Malone thought of the Brazil congress attack and the Jan 6 capitol attack as politicians taking an aggrieved working class and turning them into thinking everybody else is the enemy.

“The real power elites are using populist propaganda to create an army essentially to support them. What they are doing is trying to further consolidate powers in the hands of the elites.”

By KIERN LIM ’25 STAFF WRITER

Following nationwide protests and demonstrations over China’s zero-case COVID-19 policy in December, the Chinese government announced a sudden complete lifting of many of its health restrictions across the country. Previously, the Chinese government had imposed restrictions like week-long quarantines and curfew lockdowns in an effort to strive towards a zero-Covid society. Even major cities like Beijing and Shanghai were heavily affected, causing food and delivery bottlenecks. People’s survival became a problem, not to mention business and economic impacts. With the announcement of China’s shifting policies, Hill Chinese students were quick to react to the news.

“I personally think they should have a better system or better preparation rather than announcing it right away because it is really too surprising to the public,” Lucy Lyu ’25, a Shanghai native, said. The sudden shift of policy caught Chinese society off guard, as citizens are being rushed to return to pre-pandemic life without the facilities to do so. The sudden lift of the zero-case COVID policy exacerbated a lot of the ongoing problems in Chinese society.

The lifting of restrictions resulted in the rapid resurgence of the COVID virus in China. “A lot of people are suffering and got COVID because there was suddenly an enormous outbreak in basically every city in China. I could tell from all my friends and the people I know,” Lyu said. She shared that most of the people she knows had extreme symptoms after contracting the virus. Hospitals overflowed with patients, and health care workers are working nonstop with limited equipment.

With the situation not getting better any time soon, many became concerned and upset with the suddenness of the unthoughtful decision and methods adopted by the government. They also questioned the need for the past few years of strict restrictions. “I was so mad when I thought about it deeply. What was the point of the three years of quarantine and lockdowns? We have wasted these three years not being able to go back home, not being able to travel abroad,” Yina Yao ’25 from Shanghai commented.

However, this new policy has allowed for students to go to China without having to worry about COVID restrictions being imposed on them if they were to return. Previously, there were many Hill students who wanted to return to China during the breaks but were not able to go back due to the strict quarantine restrictions and lockdowns. They were forced to quarantine for long periods of time, sometimes even exceeding the length of the break itself. But now, they can enter China without quarantine. All they will need is to produce a negative PCR within 48 hours before their departure. There is excitement and comfort felt by international families as students are finally able to go back home smoothly.

“I just felt kind of relieved that we could finally have a chance to go back to three years ago,” said Maggie Qi ’25, who is originally from Beijing.

Jason Zhou ’23 contributed to this article