Brazil, Features, Southern Cone
As post-riot arrests mount, far-right agitators call for “respect” for Lula
January 17, 2023 By Amanda Audi
From his hotel bed in Monterrey, Mexico, journalist Oswaldo Eustáquio accepted a video call from The Brazilian Report. Judging by his relaxed demeanor, one would have a hard time believing that he is dodging three arrest warrants issued by Brazilian courts. Mr. Eustáquio says he is on a book tour — but he is also a fugitive from justice.
Mr. Eustáquio, 44, is a celebrity in far-right circles. He gained notoriety for his involvement in anti-democratic acts in support of former President Jair Bolsonaro and has become a well-known spreader of misinformation online.
In the ten weeks between the presidential runoff election and the January 8 Brasília riots — in which hordes of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed and ransacked the headquarters of all branches of government — Mr. Eustáquio helped lead a diligent far-right movement that challenged the electoral results and continuously called for a coup d’état.
He was a star in the now-destroyed putschist camp set up outside of the Army headquarters in Brasília, running the camp’s communication center and hosting a talk show with other far-right figures. Mr. Eustáquio could be described as a mix between Tucker Carlson, for his rhetoric, and David Letterman, for his charisma with the crowds. His YouTube livestreams and podcasts would firehose falsehoods for hours each day.
Mr. Eustáquio is one of the far-right agitators without whom January 8 would never have come to pass. The worst attack on democratic institutions since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985 could only occur because millions of Brazilians were convinced that the 2022 election was rigged in a vast conspiracy involving the political establishment and justice system.
And few have beaten that drum as diligently as Mr. Eustáquio.
He recently starred in a video making preposterous claims of having evidence that Brazil’s voting machines could be defrauded. In it, he shows a text editor window with supposed lines of code “proving” that one could write a command to adulterate ballot boxes. There are several other examples of his conspiracy theorizing.
On January 4, Mr. Eustáquio and fellow far-right journalist Renato Gasparin hosted a livestream calling on people to “take the country.”
“By taking Congress, we will certainly be victorious,” Mr. Eustáquio said, urging 1 million supporters of the former far-right president to avoid the push from being a one-off event and “making things worse than they already are.”
Calls to storm Brasília’s Three Powers Square have been shared on social media since January 3, says fact-checking agency Aos Fatos. Despite several platforms having guidelines against violent content and voter fraud allegations, some of these posts were still accessible on major social networks and messaging apps in the aftermath of the riots.
Aos Fatos found boatloads of posts calling upon Bolsonaro supporters to ensure “freedom and democracy,” “defend the country from the communist threat,” and “take power.” All points that Mr. Eustáquio has tirelessly hammered home for years.
Following the destruction of government buildings, authorities sought to provide a show of strength in response. More than were detained for their involvement in the riots. And authorities are now turning their attention to those who funded, organized, and enabled the attacks — a move perceived as paramount to prevent further incidents from happening.
Far-right leaders try to cover their tracks
The Supreme Court issued arrest warrants for Brasília’s former security secretary and police chief — both accused of allowing the rally to escalate into a riot. But Justice Minister Flávio Dino said at least another 50 arrests would be requested. And that has forced many promoters of the far-right movement to tone things down.
Luciano Hang — a retail tycoon who in August 2022 was targeted by a Supreme Court investigation for promoting seditious ideas in a WhatsApp group — published a video denying any participation in funding or organizing the riots, saying that he hopes the Lula government will be a success. “Let’s root for the pilot, as I’m in the plane, too. Let’s stop hate speech.”
Mr. Eustáquio is another one seeking a rebrand.
“I had disagreements with the [January 8] demos,” he tells The Brazilian Report.
He admits that messages exchanged on Telegram and WhatsApp groups made it clear that the rally would not be peaceful. “They began to say was going to be more agitated. ‘Don’t bring children or the elderly.’ So, in fact, these people had the intention to occupy Congress.”
“I said: ‘Guys, Lula has already taken office. It doesn’t make any sense anymore,'” he continues. He reportedly heard in response that the Armed Forces would support the protest and carry out a military coup. “I said: ‘the Armed Forces will enter, but they will beat you up.'”
Oswaldo Eustáquio (left). After inciting far-right rioters, he now calls for respect for the new government. (Photo: Social media)
“People believed in the military who betrayed them. The generals betrayed the people,” he says.
While his words now are in total contrast to his behavior prior to the riot, Mr. Eustáquio at least admits that those who destroyed buildings and priceless artifacts were not leftist infiltrators, as many in the far-right allege. “Some people just went into ‘mob mode’ and broke things. That happened. It wasn’t just infiltrators and black blocs that broke stuff. Our people also broke a window or two,” he said.
Footage from the scene shows hordes of people in yellow and green breaking more than just “a window or two.” They were smashing windows, defacing walls, trashing furniture, stealing and destroying priceless pieces of art — and, in some cases, urinating and defecating on public property.
Despite not being unfamiliar with spreading misinformation himself, Mr. Eustáquio was critical of the conspiracy theories that gripped the camp in the days leading up to the invasion. It was rumored that an Army general had taken power and the country was already under military rule.
“This story that General [Augusto] is president […] it was all a lie. And these people summoned crowds based on a false premise. They created a false, parallel reality,” he says. “People who were fragile, indignant for not accepting [the election result], they believed in a false premise.”
The journalist also claims the group he is a part of has been taken over by corruption. He says the people who organized the transport of around 150 buses to Brasília ahead of the riots were influenced by “private and financial interests.”
One of them is Ramiro Cruz Junior, a truck driver who asked for donations from supporters to charter 20,000 buses. He appears in more than 1,000 messages from groups that organized the protests, according to a survey by fact-checking agency Agência Pública. He received money but did not fulfill his promise.
Speaking to The Brazilian Report, Mr. Eustáquio says that the federal government should also be investigated for its omission in stopping the hordes. While local authorities explicitly aided the rioters (in their 6.5-kilometer march from their gathering site to the Congress building, they benefited from police escorts), the Justice Ministry also appeared to have made mistakes.
The day before the riot, Justice Minister Flávio Dino tweeted that he was made aware of a supposed “war” that pro-Bolsonaro activists planned to wage on Brasília, but gave the impression that he was on top of the situation.
For now, with institutions’ eyes firmly fixed on prominent right-wing influencers and activists, Mr. Eustáquio is not keen on putting a target on his own back. “The government has to be respected, even though I don’t like him [Lula],” he says. “Lula is the president and must be respected for that.”
“Let’s accept that we lost this battle, and the next battle will be [in municipal elections] two years from now.”
This story was republished with permission from The Brazilian Report. To read it click here. Use the coupon code below to access one month free.
