LGBTI+ in Brazil: the 2016 coup d’état and the 2018 stabbing
Amidst the transformations and instabilities that marked Brazil’s 2018 presidential elections, with the imprisonment of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula), certain judicial miracles took place, such as judges reading and deciding cases in record time by working during weekends, vacation time, and public holidays. This climate of insecurity eliminated Lula’s candidacy, who previously had been heavily favored to win the election; thereafter, various other candidates appeared to have a chance. Yet the stabbing of then-candidate Jair Bolsonaro by Adélio Bispo in the city of Juiz de Fora on September 6, 2018 – along with a false information scheme transmitted via Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter – contributed to increasing Bolsonaro’s share of the vote throughout Brazil. All of these events, which mixed chance and careful planning, are connected to other regional, national, and international issues, which contributed to the climate of the far-right’s rise to power.
