A MASSACRE CALLED FUX
Here in America, as in the rest of the world, when hurricanes, cyclones or devastating storms strike, it is customary to give them names that remain etched in memory.
No one forgets Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans. I was there a few days later and saw with my own eyes the city in ruins — a catastrophe of immense proportions. Nor do I forget Cyclone Chido, which recently devastated the African coast of the Indian Ocean and destroyed everything our mission had built in Mieze, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. Now we struggle to rebuild.
The Bible also brings us an example. The apostle Paul, when shipwrecked during his voyage across the Mediterranean, reports in Acts 27:14 that the wind that wrecked the vessel was called Euroaquilo.
Yesterday, however, in a rare free moment at home, I had the opportunity to sit on the couch and watch Minister Luiz Fux deliver his long vote. A career jurist, judge, and professor of Law, who, in a polished, balanced, and respectful manner, dismantled the entire narrative of the so-called “coup d’état” of January 8, 2023. A narrative constructed by some of his colleagues — partisan militants elevated to the Supreme Federal Court — in order to condemn political opponents and impose harsh sentences on patriots who protested that day.
Fux exposed, point by point, the errors committed in the indictment, even managing to legally ridicule the rapporteur, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who for years has been known as “the dictator in robes.” He also showed that the Prosecutor General, Paulo Gonet, did a disservice to the country by accusing without evidence, acting more like a political ally of the government that appointed him than as a guardian of the law.
It was a day that cleansed the soul of Brazilians suffering from the injustices perpetrated by their highest court, which has become a stage for disproportionate and vindictive convictions against political opponents.
A separate spectacle was to see the expression on the faces of the other ministers, prosecutors, and rapporteurs, unable to counter the strength of the legal arguments presented.
It is true that the defendants’ conviction will probably be confirmed, but the future appeals — backed by this solid reasoning and by international pressure — are already on the table in an absolutely irrefutable way.
For my part, I believe that if, until now, Brazil was internationally marked by a member of its Court who is arrogant and hated by the population, now another emerges, comparable to a new Rui Barbosa: respected, admired, and capable of correcting errors that shame Justice.
It was a legal massacre — not of violence, but of arguments — carried out by a judge against lawyers of political factions entrenched in the Republic’s power.
We will see the next chapters, live and in color.
And may Brazil’s liberation come this way — through law and truth — so that it is not necessary to resort to popular revolt, which destroys everything in its path, as we have seen in different countries: the day before yesterday in Nepal, yesterday in France, and today, as I write these lines, in Indonesia.
The people of the world can no longer endure the oppression of extremist rulers.
It is a new time of liberation from dictatorships, in favor of freedom.
And that is good.
