Amigo Secreto (Secret Friend) + introduction
Documentary about the questionable role played by the judiciary in Brazil in the seizure of power by the far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro.
Democracy in Brazil was going in the right direction, especially when the popular Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president in 2002, a position he would hold until the end of 2010. However, Lula had to step down following allegations of corruption and fraud. Soon journalists from the newspapers El País and The Intercept discovered that a major anti-corruption operation had been abused by right-wing forces to discredit political opponents. Judge Sergio Moro, later Minister of Justice under Bolsonaro, played a particularly dubious role. In SECRET FRIEND Maria Augusta Ramos shows how ‘lawfare’ – the use of justice as a weapon against political opponents – can erode a democracy.
Pablo del Hierro will introduce the documentary. He is an Assistant Professor in History at the University of Maastricht, where he obtained his Doctorate in the European University Institute. He specializes in international relations during the Cold War, with special emphasis on the decolonization process, and political history in the twentieth century, focusing on right wing movements and neo-fascism.