342 protests with partial or total blockages in 26 states of Brazil They have been registered until this Monday, according to the Federal Highway Police (PRF, for its acronym in Portuguese). In this order, the states with the most blockades are Santa Catarina (48), Rio Grande do Sul (43), and Mato Grosso do Sul (42).
The protests carried out by the Bolsonaro supporter truckers and professionals of other kinds blocked the roads for more than 12 hours in some areas of the country, which is why the authorities have begun to take action.
Truckers block highways in Brazil
Alexandre de Moraes, president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), ordered the police on Monday to start lifting the road blocks and other public roads.
The instruction was given in response to a lawsuit by the National Transport Confederation (CNT), where it stated that the Constitution recognizes the right to protest, but warned that it cannot be carried out “in an abusive manner and threatening the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
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De Moraes declared that if after midnight on Tuesday the truck drivers did not comply with the instructions they would be fined 100,000 reais per hour ($19,305).
It is worth mentioning that he not only took action against the protesters, but also against the police. Therefore, after assuring that there was “omission and inertia” on the part of the PRF, De Moraes threatened to impose a fine of 100,000 reais on the director of the organization, Silvinei Vasques, as well as dismiss him if he did not comply with the order.
The course of the protests will be determined by the position of the president
A truck driver from Itajaí (Santa Catarina) named Janderson Maçanero, who is participating in the protests, says that in his city barely 20% of the demonstrators they are truckersOn the other hand, the rest are citizens of various professions.
Therefore, it expresses that the non-acceptance of the new president is different from the objective of other protests in which the trucker participated. For example, in 2014, with the strike to demand that fuel prices drop, or in 2019, when they demanded the direct hiring of truck drivers.
It also ensures that the protests do not have a direct leadership or a concrete claim.
For example, some defend a military coup, while others are not in favor of it, as is your case. But what they all have in common is the rejection of Lula and that they do not accept the victory of the Workers’ Party (PT) in the elections.
“It is the position of the president that will determine the course of the protests. We are waiting for you to speak. Either Bolsonaro goes to war, or he disappears from the political scenebecause then he is not the leader we thought,” he reveals.
He states that for him “going to war” means not accepting the result, although he does not express how this would unfold, since he himself does not support a military coup. He is waiting for the president to announce the solution.
Likewise, he adds that the acceptance of the results by Bolsonaro would be a disappointment both for him and for many of his colleagues. As for how long the stoppage could last, he explains that “time is relative” for truckers: “Here we are at home. Our truck has a place to eat, a place to sleep… This is our daily routine », he comments.
Opportunity for dialogue with the Lula government
For his part, a truck driver from Curitiba (Paraná) named Wanderlei Dedeco, who acts as an “advisor” to the leaders of the truck drivers, expresses that he is against the strikes and declares that until the beginning of the day he did not believe that the demonstrations lasted a long time, but he already began to see the stage with “other eyes”.
“The demonstrations are growing rapidly and there is no immediate intervention from the PRF as there has been on other occasions. Also, Bolsonaro’s delay in speaking out may contribute to the spread of protests“, indicates.
In the same way, he expresses that: «The protests are being made by angry truck drivers, who do not accept losing, and by businessmen who believe that they will lose something with the Lula government. But democracy was present yesterdaythat’s how the game works.”
Despite the protests, some representatives of the truckers think that there is a possibility of dialogue with the Lula government.
Dedeco, one of the leaders of the trucker rally of 2018, supported Lula in the second round of the elections, unlike the active truckers in these protests.
“I was once critical of the PT and Lula, I believed in Lava Jato. But if the Federal Supreme Court did not convict him, who am I to do that? I voted for Lula and now I want to see him govern. You can be sure that I am going to criticize him, unlike the Bolsonaristas who were ‘deifying’ Bolsonaro and accepted everything bad he did », he assures.
In his opinion, the truckers would benefit from Lula’s election: “With the Bolsonaro government there were no conditions to sit down to negotiate. Lula’s government has always been more democratic, open to hearing what was right and what was not. I think we will have no difficulty in negotiating with the Lula government«, he asserts.
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Font: BBC
