In a commitment document presented to the organization of the Summit of Democracy, to be held in Washington on December 9th and 10th, the Brazilian government accuses the traditional media of misinformation and calls for freedom of expression on the internet for voices of different ideologies.
In the text, Brazil says that the traditional media is responsible for a large part of the disinformation circulating in the country and emphasizes that the fight against the problem cannot end with censorship, a banner also raised by former US president Donald Trump. The Bolsonaro government often claims that conservative and government voices have been harassed and censored by internet platforms and the Federal Supreme Court, which ordered the arrest of pocket blogger Allan dos Santos.
US government officials considered the Brazilian government’s promises to be “unusual” for the summit, which has as one of its objectives the protection of professional journalists. US President Joe Biden will announce as one of his pledges “encouraging a free and independent press.”
Initially, the idea was to defend press freedom more generally in the text. Bolsonaro has been the target of criticism from international organizations for the systematic intimidation of journalists in the country.
The Brazilian government was relieved to have the country included in the guest list for the event and would be indignant if it were vetoed. Government officials point to the fact that countries classified as not free, or partially free, have entered the list — for Freedom House’s Global Freedom Index, guests such as Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq are considered “not free”.
The US government took strategic contexts into account when selecting guests — Pakistan, for example, is a key country in the fight against terrorism. India, considered partially free, is a partner in the geopolitical dispute with China, as is the Philippines.
Brazil wants to use its participation in the summit to “reaffirm its commitment to democracy, the fight against corruption and human rights”, themes of the event. It also wants to make it clear that the country defends democracy, as long as the sovereignty of countries is respected. The participation of President Jair Bolsonaro and other leaders will come down to a three-minute video and a discussion, in which the Brazilian’s presence is not confirmed — he may be represented by a senior member of the government.
In addition to the speech, each country will send a list of voluntary commitments to the summit. The expectation is that there will be a new meeting at the end of next year, to monitor the progress of the goals. As at the Climate Summit, held in April, the idea is for countries to jointly monitor each other’s progress, without it being clear what the punishments would be in case of setbacks.
Other promises to be presented by Brazil at the summit are the commitment to the rule of law, freedom of thought and expression, including on the internet, the holding of free and fair elections and the maintenance of advances in human rights. “Brazil’s democratic institutions have faced challenges over time, which demonstrates their robustness. They have a lot to teach the world about democracy,” said Juan Gonzalez, senior director and responsible for Latin America at the National Security Council, linked to the White House, in conversation with journalists on Thursday (2).
Asked whether there are fears in the Biden administration that Bolsonaro will refuse to recognize a defeat in the 2022 elections, Gonzalez said he has “full confidence” that Brazil will carry out a free and fair election.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, traveling to Brazil in August to reiterate US opposition to Chinese suppliers’ participation in Brazil’s 5G infrastructure, also sent a message that the US was concerned about Bolsonaro’s threats to the system. electoral.
From the point of view of the Biden government, one of the goals of the summit is to establish an alliance of democratic countries in opposition to China, in an attempt to isolate the one-party regime and without free elections.
The draft of a document in support of the free internet, a way of restricting the expansion of Chinese technological standards, was circulated, but ended up not making it onto the summit’s agenda. Thus, in addition to geopolitical disputes, arbitrariness in the choice of guests for the event caused discomfort.
China expressed irritation to Brazil at the summit. The Chinese voiced the position that the US cannot consider itself the global instance that unilaterally determines who is and is not democratic.
The Chinese Communist Party plans to release this Saturday (4) a report entitled “China: A Democracy that Works”. This is a not-so-subtle stab at the US, which has been through various electoral and political turmoil, including the resistance of Trump and his followers to accepting the result of the election that lifted Biden to the presidency in 2020.
The fact that Hungary was excluded from the summit also caused unease among Europeans, who expressed dissatisfaction in diplomatic talks. The European Union has a number of problems with the autocratic government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, but would prefer that the Hungarian government’s democratic deficit were the Europeans’ business, without being singled out by the US.
Hungarian government officials try to block the EU’s participation in the summit, saying that, as the country was not invited, it does not support a joint position at the event.
In Latin America, the Argentine government insisted that Bolivia be included — without success. The Bolivian government has conflicting relations with the US and even expelled the representative of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) when Evo Morales was president.
In addition to the leaders’ meeting, there will be a series of events to debate practical measures, such as strengthening the role of the Legislative, mayors and unions, opening up space for greater inclusion of black people, LGBTQIA+ and minorities in politics and the use of technology to fight corruption.
In some of them, foreign countries will present strategies that worked. Until the afternoon of Friday (3), there was no information if Brazil would participate in any action. There will also be a parallel series of debates, organized by civil society institutions, still being assembled.
There is also an expectation that the Biden administration will announce new resources and initiatives to protect journalists and human rights activists in countries where they are in danger, and that there will be an American effort to convince other governments to give more resources to such programs.
As in environmental debates, however, clear results can take time to emerge if consistent measures are not taken, which generates some frustration among activists. One of them, who helped organize the summit, said, on condition of anonymity, that he had heard that their expectations would have to be a little lower and that this was just the beginning — the real work would only come in the next few months.
“In many ways, the summit is shaped to fail. The issues are tough, the diversity of governments makes it difficult to reach agreements, and the virtual format does away with negotiation opportunities in the corridors,” says Benjamin Gedan, deputy director of America’s program Latina from the Wilson Center think tank.
“On the other hand, the event could start a more urgent international conversation about the threats to democracy. The summit will be successful if it achieves this and if it generates better coordination between democracies, multilateral agencies and civil organizations”, ponders Gedan.
.
