00:00And to go deep into the importance of this general election, we have a special guest from Sao Paulo, Federico
00:06Fornazzieri,
00:08master's degree in international relations from Federal University of ABC.
00:13Federico, welcome to From the South. Thank you very much for your time.
00:19Thank you very much Alejandra for being here.
00:23It's a pleasure to talk with you now in this special moment for our democracy here in Brazil.
00:30Federico, a report by Brazil's intelligence agency released recently that there are in fact
00:36informations about foreign, potential foreign interference in the current electoral process that is going to be taking place on Sunday.
00:44How do you assess this position that comes from state agency and not just this conspiracy theory?
00:53It is an unofficial information.
00:58Yeah, indeed it is.
00:59Because we have seen since the last year the implementation of the new U.S. national security strategy,
01:07where they say explicitly what they want to do here in Latin America, in all Western Hemisphere actually.
01:16By controlling strategic assets like rare earth minerals and also petroleum, as we have seen in Venezuela,
01:28the interference from United States government here in Latin America is increasing.
01:36And also Trump determined that he wants to implement the new moral doctrine here in Latin America,
01:43saying the new Trump doctrine for Latin America, aiming to keep the Western Hemisphere here without competition from other countries
02:00like China,
02:02and not mainly China, because Latin America in the past ten years are changing their commerce and their political influence
02:11from United States to China and Asia.
02:15And they wanted to control this relation, new relationship, commercial relation, imposing tariffs here in Brazil and also bringing new
02:27elements for activating,
02:29for example, the South Kong naval fleet here, the fourth fleet, they are reactivating, they are constructing also other elements
02:44like the shield of America with the far-right governments that controls like Colombia,
02:51Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Peru, Argentina, they are building this strategy to suppress left governments here in Latin America.
03:03So they are pressuring a lot and putting also not just the military strategy, bringing military drones here to this
03:13new doctrine that puts criminal organizations
03:18organizations into a strategy that remembers and recalls the war on terror.
03:25So they are treating criminal organizations as military problems.
03:31So they are bombing boats from fishing people that goes around the Central America and they are trying to implement
03:43the same strategy and policy also here in South America.
03:47They are pressuring pressuring the governments of the region to recognize normal criminal organizations as military problems.
03:58That was not a truth. They are not terrorist organizations. They are cartels. They traffic drugs to the main consumers
04:07that United States is one of the main consumers of drugs here in the world actually.
04:15Not just in America, but in the world. So they are bringing this strategy to put pressure on the left
04:23governments here and try to impose the imperialist doctrine here.
04:30Again, reassembling this moral doctrine into our American hemisphere.
04:41Federico, there is a controversial relationship between the Bolsonaro family and Donald Trump, US President Donald Trump.
04:50Is there a possibility that this influence, this interference in the electoral process being orchestrated from abroad or is it
04:59being driven from within Brazil?
05:04We have those two aspects, the new doctrine, but we also have the Bolsonaro sons living in the United States
05:13and with a really close relationship with high profile levels, persons from the Department of State and the Trump advisory.
05:23So we are watching him going to the White House to pressure the United States, including to put the tariffs
05:33in Brazil.
05:33When Trump implemented the 50 percent tariffs against Brazil was a solicitation also and was explicitly said by the US
05:45government that those tariffs are being imposed because of the Jair Bolsonaro arrest that tried a coup of state here
05:54in Brazil.
05:55And our institutions managed to put him in jail and preserve our democracy.
06:01And this family is trying all the time to discredibility, to make a discredibility against our institutions, against our judiciary,
06:12against our democratic systems.
06:14And putting in the United States pressure in the United States to interfere in the elections for the Flávio Bolsonaro,
06:22also Jair Bolsonaro sons, race here in Brazil that we are going to have the next Sunday.
06:29And one more question. Federico, what mechanisms, and I want to go deep into something that you mentioned, what mechanisms
06:36does Brazil have to protect its democracy, to protect its electoral process in the face of this potential interference?
06:46Yeah, we are very concerned about this because we do not have much mechanisms against the big techs that are,
06:55for example, Meta block the deluded advertisements in this platform like Facebook and Instagram recently.
07:03So they are putting all those technologies against our project and against our democracy, promoting far-right candidates here in
07:14Brazil and also blocking left candidates in their social media.
07:20So, but we also have a judiciary system here in Brazil that helped us, that's independent power here in Brazil,
07:29our Supreme Court and our electoral Supreme Court as well, that are trying to preserve the democracy here in Brazil
07:40and how does the elections are going to be managed.
07:44So, we are very concerned that if they are planning something for the days before, like one day, two days
07:52before the election, to put something in the media, to put some thinking and like fake news and like a
08:03fake consideration against Lula presidency here and the candidate of Lula.
08:11So, we are very concerned, but we have strong institutions that manage to not allow Bolsonaro to have the coup
08:20of state and we are also depending on these institutions to guarantee the leisure of our elections here in Brazil.
08:33Thank you very much, Federico, for your time here in From the South and getting us into everything
08:37that is happening in Brazil in the few days ahead of the general elections.
08:42Thank you very much.
08:48We were speaking to Federico Fornatieri in the context of the general elections that are scheduled to take place in
08:54Brazil on Sunday, October 4th.
08:57Thank you, René
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