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12 - Fighting Corruption, Dismantling Democracy

Antagonism, Communication, and the Political Use of Lava Jato in Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2022

By
João Guilherme Bastos dos Santos  and
Esther Solano Gallego
Edited by
Sandra Botero ,
Daniel M. Brinks  and
Ezequiel A. Gonzalez-Ocantos
Sandra Botero
Affiliation:
Universidad del Rosario, Colombia
Daniel M. Brinks
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Ezequiel A. Gonzalez-Ocantos
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

This chapter investigates affinities between Bolsonarismo (the discourse of groups supporting Jair Bolsonaro’s government and ideas) and Lavajatismo (the discourse of groups supporting the Lava Jato investigation) both online and offline from 2015 to 2019. The analysis shows the links between the denial of rights, the push for accountability through the courts, and the far right, combining two original data sources. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the so-called verde e amarelos (“green and yellow”) during mass anti-corruption demonstrations in 2015 and 2017. Participants at these rallies were characterized by the use of the Brazilian yellow jersey as a symbol of nationalism, “anti-communism,” and anti-corruption. Second, the results are presented of a lexical analysis of 13,800 posts on Facebook pages supporting Lava Jato, between April 2016 to February 2019. This period included former President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, former President Luiz Inácio “Lula” Da Silva’s imprisonment, and Jair Bolsonaro’s rise to power.

Keywords

Operation Car WashLava JatoCorruptionAuthoritarian legalityRadical rightBolsonaroBrazil
Type
Chapter
Information
The Limits of Judicialization
From Progress to Backlash in Latin America
 , pp. 289 - 313
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

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