This article aims to demonstrate that Brazil lives the time of the catastrophes announced from the political, economic, social and environmental point of view that could lead the country to a disaster of gigantic proportions.

1. THE TIME OF CATASTROPHES IN BRAZIL
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to demonstrate that Brazil lives the time of the catastrophes announced from
the political, economic, social and environmental point of view that could lead the country to
a disaster of gigantic proportions. The political catastrophe in Brazil could occur with the end
of the democratic process resulting from the rise of fascism in society and at all levels of the
Republic's powers by the action of President Jair Bolsonaro who seeks to put into practice his
typically fascist government proposal based on explicit cult of order, state violence,
authoritarian government practices, social contempt for vulnerable and fragile groups, and anti-
communism. In addition to the escalation of fascism, the worsening social conditions of the
Brazilian population in view of the anti-social stance of the Bolsonaro government to
undermine the social rights of the population and not meet their demands, especially those
related to job creation.
Brazil has an economically active population of 90.6 million of which 36.3%, or 32.9 million
of private sector workers have signed employment contracts and 44% or 40 million workers
are in informal situation, that is, they do not enjoy labor rights. Unemployment is 12.7 million
workers and the underutilized economically active population is 27.6 million workers. This
means that the number of discouraged workers who stopped looking for a job is 14.9 million
workers. Taking into account the speech of Jair Bolsonaro's Minister of Economy Paulo
Guedes, who is a fundamentalist of neoliberalism, the Bolsonaro government is unlikely to
take an active role as a driver of economic growth by devising a development plan with the
necessary measures in place to promote the reactivation of the economy and raising
employment levels in Brazil.
The action of the Bolsonaro government detrimental to workers' interests against social rights
with labor and social security reforms and its inaction to solve the unemployment problem
tends to place large sectors of Brazilian society in blatant opposition, creating the culture broth
for the confrontation between government and the marginalized population. This clash has not
yet been established because opposition parties and social movements are preferring to defeat
Bolsonaro and his allies in the upcoming presidential elections because they are believing in
the increasing unpopularity of the current president. The confrontation between the Bolsonaro
government and Brazil's marginalized population tends to be radicalized with the people
rebelling against government anti-social measures and their inaction in solving the country's
problems that will worsen over time. The Bolsonaro government itself has an interest in
creating this confrontational situation to justify repression against those who react against
government measures and, ultimately, to establish a dictatorship in Brazil to govern without
the obstacles currently imposed by the legislative and judiciary powers based on Constitution
of 1988. Since the beginning of its government, the attitude of the Bolsonaro government has
been to intensify the existing division in Brazil between its supporters and opponents. At no
time did Bolsonaro propose to rule for all Brazilians.
Most likely, Bolsonaro's attempt to establish a dictatorship will face strong opposition that
could lead the country to a social upheaval that could lead to a civil war never occurred in
Brazil of unpredictable consequences. A fascist dictatorship and a civil war are two of the
catastrophes that can happen in Brazil in the near future at the political and institutional level.
This scenario puts on the agenda the need for Brazil's democratic forces to unite in order to
prevent the escalation of fascism and the establishment of a far-right dictatorship in Brazil with
the formation of an anti-fascist democratic front in Parliament and Civil Society to defend the

2. 1988 Constitution and fight against government acts that are contrary to the interests of the vast
majority of the population and Brazil.
The Bolsonaro government does not only attack Brazil at the institutional political level with
the possibility of implanting a fascist dictatorship, but with the economic catastrophe
represented by the bankruptcy of the Brazilian economic system that has been stagnant for 5
years and the national state itself as a result of the gigantic fiscal crisis that causes the
government to accumulate successive deficits in its public accounts. Faced with the need to
strengthen the Brazilian state to reactivate the national economy, the Brazilian government
should suspend the payment of domestic public debt for a period of 5 years or renegotiate with
its creditors in order to extend the time ofits payment so that the government could have the
necessary resources for public investments aimed at reactivating the economy. This solution is
unavoidable because almost half of the Union budget is used to pay the domestic public debt
service because without it there will be no public investment necessary to reactivate the
Brazilian economy. To make the Bolsonaro government's economic policy match the nation's
interests, a political front must be set up to mobilize the population to demand that the
Bolsonaro government take action in defense of the country's economic progress.
The Bolsonaro government does not only attack Brazil on an institutional political level with
the possibility of implanting a fascist dictatorship and on the economic level with the country's
economic bankruptcy, but with another catastrophe represented by the transformation of the
Brazilian nation into a country subordinate to the interests of United States and of international
capital. Brazil's subaltern alignment with US interests is manifested in the position of the
Bolsonaro government that handed over the Alcantara Base to the United States, the transfer
of the Brazilian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem according to Donald Trump's
guidance, and the denationalization of Embraer with its sale to Boeing. The Bolsonaro
government also undermines national sovereignty by making a gigantic auction of oil in the
pre-salt area by making the largest surrender of national wealth in history to foreign capital
with the surplus area of “ceding assignment” that some estimates amount to up to 30 billion
barrels in the giant fields. With the auction of the assignment, the fields of Buzios, Itaipu, Atapu
and Sepia will be delivered to international capital. Petrobras will be left out and will be a
minority shareholder of foreign companies that will capture most of it.
Since the Michel Temer government foreign participation in the looting of national wealth has
increased exponentially, with privatizations of oil fields owned by Petrobras and with new
auctions that, in two years, foreign production went from 7% to 23%. With the new auctions
to be held by the Bolsonaro government, most of the national production will soon be foreign,
demonstrating the surrender character of its government, which is in the service of the god
Mercado, Wall Street, the Washington Consensus and against the Brazilian people. And more
than that, it is conniving with the continued actions of the American empire and multinational
corporations to dominate Brazil. The Bolsonaro government is willing to hand over Brazil, its
lands and its mineral wealth, in short, the national public assets such as Petrobras, Banco do
Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, etc., to international investors.
Paulo Guedes, the neoliberal economist and minister of economics of the Bolsonaro
government, said that he intends to privatize all public assets and, consequently, hand them
over to foreign capital. Privatization implies, in fact, what is commonly referred to as
“denationalization”, where controlling acquirers are almost always (if not always!) Foreign
companies or consortia whose profits are remitted to their overseas headquarters. The use of
the term “privatization” is a way of hiding its true purpose of surrendering the nation's assets
to foreign capital. This surrender action of the Bolsonaro government could cause the

3. opposition nationalist forces to rise against it, as well as sectors of the armed forces that do not
accept the impatriotic action of the Bolsonaro government. The handing over of national wealth
to international capital is yet another catastrophe produced by the deplorable Bolsonaro
government. In order to defend national sovereignty, a nationalist front must be constituted in
Parliament and civil society to fight government acts that are contrary to Brazil's interests.
Another major catastrophe to be produced by the Bolsonaro government is the destruction of
the Amazon rainforest with the Bolsonaro government's manifest possibility of paving the way
for mining, agriculture, livestock and logging activities. The destruction of the Amazon
rainforest to implement agricultural activities has negative consequences for the climate and
water cycle. One of the consequences of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is also the
destruction and extinction of different species. Many species that can help cure diseases used
in food or as new raw materials, unknown to man, are in danger of being destroyed even before
they are known and studied. This natural good is well known to the indigenous people who live
in the forests. Another aggravating consequence of deforestation is the advance of erosion
processes. The trees of a forest have the function of protecting the soil, so that rainwater does
not pass through the trunk and infiltrate underground. They slow the runoff velocity, and
prevent the direct impact of rainfall on the soil and its roots help to retain it, preventing its
disintegration. The removal of vegetation cover with deforestation exposes the soil to the
impact of rainfall. The world's largest rainforest faces the danger of partially becoming
savannah as a result of deforestation and burning.
About 200 billion tons of carbon are stored in the tropical vegetation that covers the planet.
Photosynthesis by forest vegetation absorbs an enormous amount of carbon from the
atmosphere each year. Only the Amazon rainforest is capable of absorbing six billion tons of
carbon, equivalent to 10% of the world's photosynthesis. Most of this absorption is
compensated, however, by the release of carbon through the decomposition of organic matter
and the respiration of the forest itself. The remaining part may be being absorbed by the forest,
turning into a carbon dioxide (CO2) sink. In order to prevent the destruction of the Amazon
rainforest and to ensure that the natural resources of the Amazon are rationally used for the
benefit of its resident population and the economic and social progress of Brazil, as well as in
the fight against global warming, it is essential the defense at all costs of the integrity of the
Amazon rainforest. The Brazilian people must fight to stop the environmental crime practiced
in the Amazon with the complacency of the Bolsonaro government.
Prospects for Brazil's future are extremely negative with the Jair Bolsonaro government whose
actions will be disastrous for the Country in the face of the catastrophe it can produce for
democracy, social rights, the national economy and Brazil's independence regarding the great
powers, especially the United States, and international capital. In the neoliberal era in which
we live with the Bolsonaro government, there is no room for the advancement of democracy,
social rights, the Brazilian economy and national independence. On the contrary, there is the
elimination of democracy and social rights and the deconstruction and denial of the
achievements already made by Brazil in the political, economic and social fields and by the
subordinate classes. The so-called "reforms" of social security, labor laws, the privatization of
public enterprises, etc. - “reforms” that are on the Bolsonaro government's agenda aim at the
pure and simple restoration of the conditions proper to a “savage” capitalism, in which the laws
of the market must be unhindered. Faced with the catastrophe that represents the fascist, anti-
social and anti-national government of Bolsonaro for Brazil, the Brazilian people must
mobilize in the struggle to defend democracy, the interests of the marginalized population,
economic progress and national sovereignty.

4.  Fernando Alcoforado, 79, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member
of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by
the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business
planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems,is author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel,
São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998),
Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da
Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003),
Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao
Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicosna Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions
of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária
(Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável-Para o progresso
do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os FatoresCondicionantesdo Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no
Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As
Grandes RevoluçõesCientíficas, Econômicase Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A
Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação
Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018, em co-autoria) and Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora
CRV, Curitiba, 2019).