The return of censorship to Brazil

In recent months, after the election of a far-right candidate for president, Brazil is witnessing the return of censorship at various levels. From mayors to the president himself, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil has become the scene of arbitrariness against cultural productions that do not fit the ultra-conservative perspective of certain political actors in the country.

According to the website El País Brasil, the president himself justifies his mission of “preserving Christian values, treating our youth with respect, recognizing the family as a unit that must be healthy for the good of all”. In the name of this, several far-right civil servants and politicians judge themselves on the right to censor books, comics, plays, art exhibitions, and film productions.

In January 2019, upon assuming the presidency of Brazil, Bolsonaro extinguished the Ministry of Culture. Since then, the ministry has become secretariat status within the new Ministry of Citizenship, under the command of Minister Osmar Terra, who, among other things, has advocated the closure of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) if the agency approves rules on cannabis plantation in Brazil for the production of medicines and prohibited the publication of the 3rd National Survey on Drug Use by the Brazilian Population by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a health research institution with more than 100 years of history.

President Jair Bolsonaro has already censored an advertisement by state bank Banco do Brasil that displayed racial and sexual diversity. The video censored by the Brazilian president featured black actors and actresses and different contemporary styles of life just to talk to the young audience, targeted by the bank's campaign.

Now another state-owned bank, Caixa Economica Federal, according to Folha de S. Paulo, has created a system of censorship prior to projects of its cultural centers. This week, according to the UOL website, Caixa Cultural Recife canceled the presentations of the children's show Abrazo, which was scheduled for this and next weekend. The play, organized by the Shakespeare Christmas group Clowns of Natal (RN), shows a country that prohibits displays of affection and subtly exposes themes such as dictatorship, censorship, and repression.

In the same vein, other lesser politicians, such as Rio de Janeiro Mayor Marcelo Crivella, also tried to censor other artistic manifestations. At the last Rio Book Biennial, the mayor ordered to censor and collect copies of the comic book "Avengers - The Children's Crusade", because the comic had a picture of two young men kissing. The measure was eventually prohibited by the court. Crivella, who is also a bishop of a  Christian right church, has very low approval as mayor and was seeking to increase his approval among the city's most conservative population with this comic book censorship.

At the same time, President Jair Bolsonaro, in an offensive against the Brazilian National Film Agency (Ancine), cut 43% of the audiovisual fund. Then, the Ministry of Citizenship issued an ordinance that prevented the completion of an announcement by the National Cinema Agency (Ancine) for LGBT-themed audiovisual productions. The Brazilian Justice, through the Federal Prosecutor's Office (MPF), would eventually suspend the ordinance that was considered harmful to public coffers.

Paradoxically, the Bolsonaro government is trying to put into practice in Brazil an unacceptable ideological rigging of the state, a fact that he widely criticized as a presidential candidate. Now, in addition to the deep economic crisis and the enormous environmental problems affecting the nation, Brazil has also become the target of the backward and often deranged rightism advocated by the president and other members of his government as the minister of family, women and human rights, Damares Alves, and the Brazilian Chancellor, Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo.