Condemning the undemocratic attacks on Brazil's Government institutions and supporting the free will of the Brazilian people as expressed in Brazil's recent Presidential election.

IV 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. RES. 106 Condemning the undemocratic attacks on Brazil’s Government institutions and supporting the free will of the Brazilian people as expressed in Brazil’s recent Presidential election. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 8, 2023 Mr. CICILLINE (for himself, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Ms. WILD, Ms. TITUS, Mr. ALLRED, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. JACOBS, Mr. CONNOLLY, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MOSKOWITZ, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. COHEN, and Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Af- fairs RESOLUTION Condemning the undemocratic attacks on Brazil’s Govern- ment institutions and supporting the free will of the Brazilian people as expressed in Brazil’s recent Presi- dential election. Whereas, on October 30, 2022, Brazil’s former President, Luiz Ina´cio Lula da Silva, won the majority of votes cast in a runoff election to become Brazil’s next President over incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro; Whereas Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party did well in the 2022 elec- tions, winning 99 seats in the 513-member lower house, 13 of the 81 Senate seats, and 2 Governors’ races, in ad- VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 Feb 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR106.IH HR106 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 106 IH dition to participating in coalitions that elected at least 6 others; Whereas Bolsonaro made his first public remarks 2 days later, thanking his supporters and encouraging their pro- tests, as long as they remained peaceful, but failing to of- ficially concede to Lula; Whereas Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party asked the electoral court to reject ballots from voting machines deployed before 2020, claiming these models were compromised, notwith- standing that these voting machines represent 61 percent of all voting machines and rejecting these ballots would likely have flipped the election result; Whereas Brazil’s electoral court rejected the challenge against the Presidential election result, stating that the complaint was made ‘‘in bad faith’’ and fined Bolsonaro’s party 22.9m reais or $4,300,000; Whereas the Brazilian Supreme Court and the Superior Elec- toral Court that oversees elections have faced an unprece- dented campaign of distrust and public threats to judges largely due to years of Bolsonaro making false claims about the election system including before, during, and after the 2022 electoral process; Whereas, according to independent experts, Brazil’s election officials, and foreign governments, including the United States, there has been no evidence of fraud in the elec- tronic voting machines since Brazil began using them in 1996, despite Bolsonaro’s claims otherwise; Whereas, in the days leading up to Brazil’s Presidential elec- tions, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube di- rected many online users seeking basic election-related in- formation toward groups pushing claims that question VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Feb 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR106.IH HR106 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 106 IH the integrity of the vote or openly agitating for a military coup; Whereas there are multiple layers of security to prevent fraud errors, including the testing of hundreds of machines on election day to ensure votes are recorded correctly, having each polling station publicly post vote counts to ensure they match up with the national tally, having outside ex- perts inspect some of the source code of the machines’ software, and ensuring machines are not connected to the internet, significantly reducing the chances of a hack; Whereas, despite this lack of evidence of election fraud, sup- porters of former President Bolsonaro blocked roads across the country, scuffled with police, and continued demonstrating outside of military barracks, urging a mili- tary intervention in order to prevent Lula from taking of- fice; Whereas Bolsonaro arrived in Florida in late December, skip- ping the January 1, 2023, swearing-in of Lula, who be- came the first elected Brazilian President not to receive the Presidential sash from his predecessor since democ- racy was restored in 1985; Whereas, on January 8, 2023, hundreds of supporters of former President Bolsonaro stormed the National Con- gress of Brazil, the Pala´cio do Planalto (presidential pal- ace), and the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, and many claimed they wanted the Brazilian military to re- store Bolsonaro to power and oust newly inaugurated President Luiz Ina´cio Lula da Silva; Whereas hundreds of protesters began to riot by using heavy metal objects to force their way into the buildings, smashing windows, setting fires, ransacking offices, de- VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Feb 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR106.IH HR106 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 106 IH stroying furniture and computers, scaling the building, and waving flags and banners in support of Bolsonaro; Whereas Brazilian authorities are reporting that at least 70 individuals were injured, including police officers and members of the media, and more than 650 people have been charged so far in connection to the riots; Whereas ongoing investigations have indicated that actions by some members of the military and police to encourage, support, and protect those violently defacing democratic institutions highlight possible cooperation between mili- tary and police officials and the rioters; Whereas such treatment stands in stark contrast to reports by United Nations human rights experts demonstrating a sharp increase in violence by police of low-income, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities in Brazil over the last 4 years; Whereas President Lula, congressional leaders, and the Su- preme Court President issued a statement saying that ‘‘defenders of democracy’’ in Brazil ‘‘reject the acts of terrorism, vandalism, crime, and the attempted coup’’ and ‘‘are united to take institutional action, according to Brazilian law’’; Whereas Brazilian Supreme Court Justice, Alexandre de Moraes, is conducting investigations into the riots and continues to analyze the security failings that allowed Bolsonaro supporters to ransack government buildings; and Whereas President Joe Biden spoke to President Lula by phone on January 9, 2023, and ‘‘conveyed the unwaver- ing support of the Untied States for Brazil’s democracy and for the free will of the Brazilian people as expressed VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Feb 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR106.IH HR106 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 5 •HRES 106 IH in Brazil’s recent President election’’ and also ‘‘con- demned the violence and the attack on democratic insti- tutions and on the peaceful transfer of power’’: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1 (1) condemns the violent and unlawful attack 2 on Brazil’s government institutions, including the 3 National Congress of Brazil, the Pala´cio do Planalto 4 (presidential palace), and the Supreme Court in 5 Brasilia; 6 (2) opposes any attempt to overturn the free 7 will of the Brazilian people as expressed in the 2022 8 election results and undemocratically remove newly 9 inaugurated President Lula; 10 (3) stands with the people of Brazil as they re- 11 cover from this horrific incident and seek justice and 12 accountability for the attack; 13 (4) calls for the United States Government to 14 cooperate with requests for assistance received from 15 Brazilian authorities investigating the attack; and 16 (5) supports constructive dialogues between the 17 United States and Brazil to promote democracy, re- 18 spect for rule of law, human rights, civic participa- 19 tion, and racial and ethnic equality in access to jus- 20 tice. 21 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Feb 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR106.IH HR106 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS