BRAZIL has been going through tumultuous times since the elected president Dilma Rousseff was removed over 15 months ago by an illegitimate impeachment process that was widely condemned internationally as a coup.

But whether the crises are political, social or environmental, they always seem to be ignored by much media coverage on Latin America. 

It seems that the media is more interested in backing up US President Donald Trump’s attempts to force regime change in countries with left-wing governments than the anti-democratic manoeuvres and hard-line neoliberal economics of much of the region’s right wing.

The current president and key coup orchestrator Michel Temer is sitting on a 2 per cent popularity rating. He has avoided being investigation for corruption by his allies in Brazil’s lower house more than once.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg of the complex situation in Brazil.

Since the coup in Brazil removed Rousseff, who had received 54 million votes in the last presidental election, in 2016 without a single vote from the Brazilian public, ending 14 years of Workers Party (PT) government, the right wing has been rolling back the achievements of those years.

Temer and his right-wing government have implemented a hard-line austerity agenda without electoral backing, an agenda clearly in contradiction to the platform on which Rousseff was elected in 2014.

This disastrous agenda has included a 20-year public spending freeze on healthcare and education, removal of environmental and indigenous protections and a dismantling of Brazil’s labour laws, which trade unions across the globe have said will take workers’ rights back decades.

They have even relaxed the definition of slavery in a controversial measure criticised by the UN special rapporteur on modern-day slavery, who said that the government decree “would weaken the protection of poor and excluded populations that are vulnerable to slavery.”

In the country with a luscious rainforest and rich, diverse ecosystems, the environmental impact of increasing deforestation and unchallenged agricultural expansion cannot be underestimated.

Climate change and deforestation are massive global issues and it is a tragedy that the protection of a third of the world’s rainforest has fallen to President Temer, whose policies have shown his close relationship with Brazil’s big-agricultural businesses.

With elections set to take place next year, it would seem that the stage is set for a change in government to wrestle the country back on track with the backing of the electorate and, with former president Lula da Silva back on the scene and currently polling as the presidential favourite, Brazil may just have the right person.

The only problem is the current government’s total disregard for democracy. During Rousseff’s impeachment, it was made clear that sections of the right wing were willing to do anything to gain power and, by the same measure, they are doing all they can to stop the most popular politician in Brazil from getting on the ballot.

Lula has faced an extremely hostile media and judicial system, which are working together to defame and discredit the former president with tactics his legal team have deemed “lawfare.”

Esteemed human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson QC has taken Lula’s case to the UN.

Robertson argues that the former president’s prosecutors and the judge in charge of his case have infringed Lula’s human rights by desperately trying to find him guilty of corruption while lacking any real evidence against him.

Remarkably, the judge has even been pegged as a potential presidential candidate. He also leaked illegally recorded messages of Lula, members of his family and legal team to the press in a blatant breach of confidentiality. Bias doesn’t begin to cut it.

While the right is orchestrating against Lula, he has responded by touring the country, garnering support in regions across the country.

The huge social and economic reforms that began with his term of office lifted millions from poverty and turned Brazil into an economic powerhouse.

Should he return to power, Lula is promising a radical programme of investment not cuts.

For international activists across the globe, Lula’s fight is key. An icon of working-class movements and the left is being hounded out of politics while the legacy he put in place is ripped apart by corrupt, regressive and elitist politicians.

Alongside this, resistance is taking place across the country against the illegitimate neoliberal government, through strikes, protests, land occupations and a diverse range of burgeoning social movements.

Temer’s harsh austerity agenda has never been accepted at the ballot box. That is why the fight in Brazil for democracy and social progress is our fight too.

No Coup in Brazil will be hosting a session with Colin Burgon and others at the Latin America 2017 conference on Saturday December 2 (registration from 9.15am) at Congress House, Great Russell Street, London, WC. You can register at www.latinamerica2017.org.uk or on the door. Two members of Lula’s legal team will also address the event, alongside Ken Loach, the Venezuelan, Cuban, Bolivian and Nicaraguan ambassadors, Geoffrey Robertson QC, Victoria Brittain and Chris Williamson MP.