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Pratique du shadowing : To fight authoritarianism America should look to Brazil

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  1. On the left, rioters breached the US Capitol.0:04
  2. On the right, a mob storms Brazil's highest court.0:08
  3. Two capitals, two insurrections, similar playbooks.0:12
  4. Chaos in Brazil.0:17
  5. As thousands storm the country's capital, protesting October's election results.0:19
  6. This is an incredibly dangerous situation that's unfolding here in the United States.0:23
  7. Two years after the January 6th attack in the US, thousands of supporters of right -wing former President Jair Bolsonaro smashed their way into Congress, the Supreme Court, and the0:28
  8. Presidential Palace.0:38
  9. The parallels are unmistakable.0:40
  10. An insurrection, mob violence, and a losing candidate who refused to concede.0:42
  11. Jair Bolsonaro refuses to say he lost his country's presidential election despite the fact that he lost his country's presidential election.0:47
  12. You don't concede when there's theft involved.0:55
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  1. Yet today, one leader sits in prison with a 27 -year sentence, while the other, well...0:59
  2. Congratulations, Mr.1:05
  3. President.1:06
  4. So how do two democracies facing similar threats end up here?1:08
  5. And what can the US learn from Brazil about how to stop the rise of authoritarianism in Trump's second term?1:13
  6. Jair Bolsonaro is known as the Trump of the Tropics.1:23
  7. He's a special man doing very well.1:26
  8. We have a lot in common.1:30
  9. Both presidents denied all responsibility for the insurrections.1:32
  10. Bolsonaro, who landed back in Brazil at the end of March after three months in the US, has denied any involvement.1:37
  11. Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day?1:44
  12. I had nothing to do with the Trump campaign.1:47
  13. But their two governments responded very differently.1:48
  14. In the US, the Democratic -led House moved quickly.1:51
  15. Tonight, the historic moment in the House voting along party lines to impeach President Trump.1:54
  16. But while many Republican senators spoke out in the immediate aftermath...2:00
  17. They tried to disrupt our democracy.2:04
  18. They failed.2:07
  19. We saw a terrorist attack on the United States Capitol.2:08
  20. It was despicable.2:11
  21. It was an assault on the citadel of democracy.2:12
  22. Most voted, not guilty.2:15
  23. And in the end, the Senate fell short of the 67 votes needed for a conviction.2:17
  24. And in Brazil, Congress didn't provide an effective check against the former president either.2:22
  25. An impeachment against Bolsonaro was never really in the cards.2:27
  26. That left just one institution with the power and the will to hold Bolsonaro accountable.2:32
  27. The Supreme Court.2:37
  28. At first glance, Brazil's Supreme Court looks a lot like America's.2:40
  29. Justices, robes, class photos.2:44
  30. But its courts' powers are slightly more broad, in a way that's pivotal to this story.2:47
  31. Brazil's constitution was written in the wake of a military dictatorship that ran the country from 1964 to 1985.2:52
  32. Its authors included extra protection against potential abuses of power.3:00
  33. So they gave the Supreme Court an authority America's does not have.3:04
  34. The ability to try criminal cases involving high -ranking officials, including the president.3:07
  35. Brazil also has another powerful federal body that doesn't exist in America.3:12
  36. The Superior Electoral Court, or TSE, which enforces election law and regulates campaigns.3:17
  37. And in 2023, the same man sat at the top of both courts.3:24
  38. Justice Alexandre de Marais.3:28
  39. Marais had been a longtime adversary of Bolsonaro and his supporters since 2019, when the court launched an investigation to crack down on election misinformation spreading online.3:31
  40. That made him the sort of antagonist to the Bolsonaro movement and made lightning rods for far -right vitriol.3:41
  41. So when the insurrection happened on January 8th, Marais and the court were very well positioned to act quickly and forcefully.3:53
  42. Within hours of the attack on the Capitol, the Supreme Court began an investigation into efforts to undermine democracy.4:00
  43. And by the next day, the court and federal police were already issuing mass attentions and search warrants.4:06
  44. Bolsonaro was quickly put formally under investigation for inciting the riots.4:14
  45. Meanwhile, the electoral court banned Bolsonaro from holding office again for eight years.4:21
  46. The Supreme Electoral Court found Mr.4:26
  47. Bolsonaro guilty of abuse of power.4:28
  48. And months later, the federal police made a huge discovery that Bolsonaro wasn't just inciting an insurrection.4:30
  49. He was actually planning a full -on military coup.4:36
  50. Investigators found thrones of documents and even one plan to assassinate Marais, to assassinate then -president -elect Lula and his vice -president Gerardo Alcami, was printed out in a computer4:40
  51. within the Presidential Palace by a former military aide of Bolsonaro.4:56
  52. Everything was very well documented and poorly disguised.5:01
  53. It was that evidence that allowed Brazil's Attorney General to bring criminal charges against Bolsonaro and his co -conspirators.5:07
  54. The Supreme Court tried the case with Marais's presiding judge.5:26
  55. The trial took five days and was broadcast nationwide.5:30
  56. And in September 2025, in a 4 -to -1 vote, former president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison.5:33
  57. So what Marais did was change completely the way to handle Bolsonaro.5:43
  58. And many of his critics say that he was overreaching.5:48
  59. But many of them recognize that at that particular moment, the goal of saving democracy was far more important than anything else.5:52
  60. Quick but important interruption.6:04
  61. I just want to take a second to thank our Vox Patreon members.6:06
  62. Their financial support is what makes reporting and stories like this possible.6:10
  63. Reporting on a sensitive topic like this one takes time, care, and real resources.6:13
  64. Support from our members gives us the independence to take on difficult stories and the responsibility to get them right.6:18
  65. Supporting us on Patreon is how this type of reporting continues.6:24
  66. If you can't support us on Patreon financially right now, you can still follow us for free and stay connected with our reporting.6:28
  67. And now, back to the video.6:34
  68. But let's slow down for a moment, because this part is important.6:37
  69. We can't give the Supreme Court all the credit here.6:41
  70. If you say they played a crucial role, I think that's undeniable.6:44
  71. But they were not acting in isolation.6:49
  72. Marais may have led the charges against Bolsonaro, but he needed the backing of his fellow justices every step of the way.6:51
  73. And those justices didn't get there by chance.6:59
  74. They were appointed by presidents and confirmed by the Senate.7:01
  75. So why weren't the other justices more loyal to Bolsonaro or the ideological right?7:04
  76. That's in part because Brazil's political system isn't divided into two opposing camps the way that America's is.7:09
  77. The dynamics of Brazilian politics are not as clearly left versus right, and we have more than a dozen parties represented in Congress.7:16
  78. The sheer volume of parties in Brazil encourages negotiation and constant coalition building over rigid loyalty to one party or one president.7:27
  79. In the US, if you're a member of Congress, either in the House or the Senate, and you get kicked out of your party, there's essentially nowhere else to go.7:35
  80. So any Republican politician, if they go against Trump, they are essentially risking political death.7:45
  81. And in Brazil, it's not like that.7:51
  82. That same logic applies to Brazil's Supreme Court.7:54
  83. We have 11 justices, and they don't necessarily vote across party lines.7:57
  84. And actually, what history has proven is that the more they are on the bench, the less attached they are to the parties that put them on the bench in8:02
  85. the first place.8:13
  86. In the US, Supreme Court judges are incentivized to act as proxies for political camps, even though they're supposed to be nonpartisan.8:14
  87. And you can see that play out clearly when the criminal case against Trump reached the Supreme Court.8:23
  88. The six justices who were appointed by Republican presidents voted to increase presidential immunity, while the three appointed by Democratic presidents voted against it.8:28
  89. So all the charges against Trump were dropped.8:37
  90. I think that can only be understood through the pretty inarguable fact at this point that Supreme Court justices are partisan players.8:40
  91. That's the ultimate difference between the two outcomes.8:51
  92. Brazil's court constrained presidential power, while America's court actually expanded it.8:53
  93. Brazil's response to Bolsonaro didn't come out of nowhere.9:03
  94. It was shaped by the experience of living under a military dictatorship that didn't end that long ago.9:07
  95. And that recent history meant the warning signs of authoritarianism were easier to recognize because they'd seen them before.9:12
  96. MULTIPLE!9:19
  97. MULTIPLE!9:20
  98. MULTIPLE!9:21
  99. Americans often take democracy for granted and think that authoritarianism is something that cannot happen to them.9:23
  100. And Brazil reminded us that authoritarianism is still a very alive threat and that we have to keep on fighting to protect democracy the best way we can.9:30
  101. The U .S.9:45
  102. has been a democracy for over 200 years, and that stability can sometimes work against it.9:45
  103. Checks and balances and constitutions do not enforce themselves.9:51
  104. They are not magical documents that will protect us if we only recite them by heart.9:55
  105. Brazil's government is far from perfect.10:04
  106. Brazil protected and saved democracy, but it did not fix democracy.10:06
  107. Political polarization remains rampant.10:12
  108. The courts are still contested, and we still have an unhealthy level of political calcification.10:15
  109. But that just proves the point that it is something that we have to keep on doing day in and day out.10:22
  110. And it is a task that will never end.10:31
  111. So what happened in Brazil matters?10:35
  112. Not because it offers a perfect model, but because it shows that democratic institutions only work if the people inside them decide to act.10:38

Mesuré dans ce clip

Débit
167 mots par minute — plus rapide que 32% du catalogue
Niveau CECRL
B2
Mots à connaître
marais, regulates, impeach, democracies, rioters, misinformation
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