Brazilian delegation in U.S. warns of threats to elections
American lawmakers receive delegation of 18 Brazilian civil society organizations; the group will ask that the result of the presidential election be recognized immediately to avoid attempts at democratic breakdown
(Foto: Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom/ABr)
A delegation of representatives from 18 Brazilian civil society organizations will be in Washington DC from July 24 to 29 to participate in more than 20 meetings with members of the U.S. State Department, congressmen and women, senators and representatives of local civil society organizations and unions. The intention is to warn of the threats to the Brazilian election process and request a firm and swift recognition of the election results announced by the Brazilian electoral authorities.
“The whole world is closely following the 2022 presidential elections in Brazil. In the U.S., there is an even greater awareness, on account of the attempts to subvert the country’s election process in 2020 and the storming of the Capitol in 2021. The Brazilian organizations, therefore, have a lot to say and listen to during this series of meetings,” said Paulo Abrão, executive director of the WBO (Washington Brazil Office), the institution that is organizing the delegation’s visit.
On Tuesday, July 26, the group will be received by the U.S. Department of State and by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives. On Friday, July 29, there will be a bilateral meeting with Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, who is a key player on the Select Committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol, on January 6, 2021.
Also in Congress, over the course of the five-day visit, bilateral meetings will be held with different Democratic representatives. In the Senate, the group will be received by the Democrat Bernie Sanders (Vermont), among others.
Ambassadors from various different countries will receive the Brazilian delegation, which will also have meetings with local civil society organizations and think tanks such as the Atlantic Council, Wola (Washington Office on Latin America), the Wilson Center and the U.S. cooperation agency USAID, among others.
“Representatives from the black, LGBTIQA+, indigenous and environmental movements, among others, will be on the frontline of these discussions, speaking for themselves about the situation in Brazil,” said James Green, president of the Board of Directors of WBO. “It is important that these representatives of Brazilian civil society be heard firsthand, personally, without intermediaries, because they are, after all, the protagonists of many of the human rights violations experienced in Brazil recently, and they are the ones who are raising this concern about the importance of respecting the result of the 2022 election”.
According to Camila Asano, program director at Conectas, “the diversity of the delegation reveals how a large part of Brazilian society is dedicated to defending democracy and fundamental rights in the country. It will also be an important opportunity to show international actors that civil society has reaffirmed its trust in Brazil’s electoral institutions”.
The organizations that make up the delegation are: ABGLT (Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transexuals and Intersex People), APIB (Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), Article 19, the Arns Commission, CONAQ (National Coordination of Black Rural Quilombola Communities), Conectas, Geledés, Greenpeace Brazil, the Climate and Society Institute, the Marielle Franco Institute, the Peregum Black Reference Institute, the Vladimir Herzog Institute, Pact for Democracy, Transparency International, Uneafro, 342 Artes and NAVE.
