XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Echoes of the Past or Something New on the Front: Anti-Communism and Anti-Corruption Narratives and US-Brazil Relations, 1964 and 2015/16 in Historical Perspective

• In Event: From Anti-Communism to Anti-Corruption: US Meddling in Brazil, Past and Present

Abstract

After a promising decade of democratic functioning and socio-economic (somewhat) inclusive growth in the early 2000s. Brazil experiences a turbulent last decade when inequality and famine expanded, and the very consolidation of its democratic transition was put at risk. At its core, this process derived from the conservative/authoritarian backlash that took over the country, starting the 2014, on the throes of perceived social leveling and, more importantly, the fostering of anti-establishment narrative centered on the notion that the left-centrist coalition in power was uniquely corrupt. The effectiveness of how this logic took over the country speaks both to how concerted this destabilization campaign occurred, as well as to the limits of the inclusion unfolding in the preceding years. In any case, though in a different historical context, this was the first time when anti-establishment narratives were cleverly deployed by powerful socio-economic and political actors to destabilize a center-left government. Namely, echoes of the early 1960s seemed louder than ever in Brazil of the mid 2000-teens. This paper will examine some of these parallels, including the role of domestic and foreign actors in both cases.

Author

• Rafael Ioris, University of Denver