A delegation of Brazilian congressmen led by Senator Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA), rapporteur for the January 8th CPI, will go to Washington next week to discuss with American parliamentarians involved in the investigation into the invasion of the Capitol the attacks on democracy in both countries.
The recent clash between billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X (former Twitter), and STF (Supreme Federal Court) minister Alexandre de Moraes should also be addressed in the conversations. Last week, a US Congressional commission released a report that exposed the judge’s decisions that had been obtained through subpoenas to the social network.
The delegation includes senator Humberto Costa (PT-PE) and deputies Jandira Feghali (PC do B-RJ), Henrique Vieira (PSOL-RJ), Rafael Brito (MDB-AL) and Rogério Correia (PT-MG). The visit takes place between next Monday (29) and May 2.
The group will meet with Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, a member of the House committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 invasion and who led the charge in the second impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump. The idea is that other American politicians will also participate in the meeting, but the names have not yet been confirmed.
This is not the first time that deputies involved in the January 8 and 6 investigations have spoken — a virtual meeting took place last May with Raskin and, in August, an American delegation led by Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was in Brasília, where responses to the attacks were also discussed.
Eliziane states that the proposal is to address the developments of the two commissions, considering the conclusion of the report prepared by her at the end of last year. “The idea now is to have an in-depth debate, which can lead to good results in relation to strengthening democracy and combating fake news”, she says.
Despite the similarities between the two processes, she highlights that an important difference in the Brazilian case is the ineligibility of Jair Bolsonaro, which did not happen with Trump. The Republican is running for the White House again this year and appears in the polls sometimes tied and sometimes ahead of President Joe Biden. “I think that in Brazil we walked a little further”, says Eliziane.
The CPI on January 8 called for the indictment of Bolsonaro and 60 other people, including five former ministers and 22 Armed Forces soldiers. The report, from last October, called the former president the “great intellectual author” of the attacks and pointed out that he would be the biggest beneficiary of a coup.
Regarding the documents released last week that exposed Moraes’ decisions on removing accounts on social networks, Eliziane highlights that the topic is “on the agenda” despite not being the central point of the visit, which had been articulated since October by the Vladimir Herzog Institute, which finances the trip.
“When we talk about the Elon Musk case, we are talking about democracy, respect for the democratic process, including internal to the country. We have a very large investigation that has already convicted several people and others are being processed, and all of them are in some way related to fake news, with an attempt to trivialize social networks”, he says.
Rogério Sottili, director of the Vladimir Herzog Institute, says that the objective of the trip is to exchange experiences about extremist and anti-democratic movements. “It is clear that the issue of disinformation platforms was at the heart of these movements, so it is likely that the topic will appear,” he says.
In addition to the meeting with American congressmen, the delegation will meet with the executive secretariat of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, participate in an event with civil society and meet with the Brazilian embassy.
Other agendas are being organized, but not yet confirmed, with Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Susan Wild, Jim McGovern, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Joaquin Castro, Cori Bush and Chuy Garcia.
The Washington Brazil Office (WBO), a research center that works as a bridge between Brazilian organizations and the American capital, also supports the initiative.
The trip takes place just over a month after the visit of another delegation to Washington, led by federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), who also proposed to discuss alleged attacks on democracy – but by the Lula government (PT) and the STF. The former president’s son included dinner with Trump in Florida in his tour.
On that occasion, the group would participate in a hearing entitled “Brazil: A crisis of democracy, freedom and the Rule of Law?” at the Human Rights Commission of the American Legislature. The event, however, was blocked by McGovern, the Democratic co-president of the body, who has since become the target of Bolsonaro supporters.
The former president’s son coordinates an international offensive to garner support for allegations of persecution and censorship in Brazil. In addition to frequent visits to Washington — there were at least two others, in November and February —, he was in Brussels (Belgium) at the beginning of the month, on a mission to the European Parliament. The clash between Musk and Moraes was one of the central themes of the conversations.
