To a casual observer, the spirited crowd gathered at Harvard Square on November 6th may have seemed to be celebrating the outcome of a Brazilian soccer match, or perhaps heralding the upcoming World Cup. Yet a closer look and some knowledge of Brazilian politics would have correctly identified it not as a celebration, but a protest of the results of Brazil’s recent presidential election.
On October 30th, left-wing politician Luiz Inácio da Silva defeated far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro by a narrow margin. Bolsonaro, who has gained notoriety through his semi-regular displays of transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, and racism, set the stage for the election by repeatedly attacking Brazil’s election systems and declaring the widespread potential for Brazilian voter fraud. These baseless claims led to fear of the possibility that Bolsonaro would not accept the election results, but rather interfere with the peaceful transition of power, a scenario all too familiar to the American electorate.
While he still has not explicitly acknowledged his defeat, Bolsonaro has not claimed fraud and has authorized the beginning of the transition to Lula. Yet neither his actions nor a report by government officials and independent security experts that found no credible evidence of voter fraud have stopped his masses of supporters from protesting the election and demanding military intervention to stop the transfer of power.
Although a Brazilian election might seem remote and irrelevant to many Harvard students, we cannot afford to ignore either the election or the resulting demonstration. It is important to recognize that the protest in the Square did not just advocate for Bolsonaro, but also denounced the democratic norms that sustain the country of Brazil. It represents a widespread attack on democracy reminist of rhetoric pervading American politics for the past two years.
Helena Mello Franco ’24, one of the co-presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Brazilian Association, voiced her worries concerning the protest.
“I think we’re all very scared, all very frustrated by the fact that it was happening here, and also very worried that it would reflect poorly on us as Harvard students if people who were walking by would associate the Brazilians at Harvard with the people who were protesting,” Franco said.
Some students organized a counter protest supporting democratic values and clarifying that the original protest was not representative of the Harvard Undergraduate Brazilian Association (HUBA). However, as Franco described, the physical and verbal harassment of students by the protesters prevented students from staying for very long.
While HUBA did not support the original protest, Franco clarified that “HUBA does not stand for any party in particular. What we do stand for is for democratic values being upheld.”
Finally, we need to understand the danger and gravity of the protest in the Square as warning of the fragility of democracy today amid recent anti-democratic reforms around the world that threaten the liberal world order.
The Harvard bubble has insulated many of us from the reality of these movements. We read books written by Government professors and New Yorker articles on the erosion of democratic values, but we typically associate the problem with a political party that feels alien to many of us.
“One thing that is good in a way, that this protest was held here, is that I feel like Harvard students in general don’t see how polarized Brazil is right now… Students in general are very quick to assume that all Brazillians hate Bolsonaro, which is not true,” Franco stated.
It is imperative for us to stand with Brazil in its fight to preserve democratic institutions and the peaceful transition to power. In doing so, we support the fight for democracy worldwide.
Manuel Yepes ’24 (mannyyepes@college.harvard.edu) writes Forum for The Independent.