Incumbent Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro counted truckers among his most fervent supporters in Sunday’s presidential election.
The truckers are evidently not taking Bolsonaro’s narrow loss to socialist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva very well, as reports are coming in from across Brazil of truck drivers blocking roads and demanding a recount. Some of them have even called on Bolsonaro to stage a military coup to retain power.
As of Monday morning, at least 47 roadblocks were reported in 14 of Brazil’s 27 states, including Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. At one point on Sunday, authorities counted over 100 roadblocks. Some of the blockades were reinforced with piles of burning tires, smaller vehicles, and crowds of pro-Bolsonaro protesters.
Some of the blockades were cleared overnight by the Federal Highway Police (PRF), while others have halted transportation on major roadways. PRF officials said they were negotiating with truckers to “release the highway in a peaceful way.”
Aerial view showing supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro, largely truck drivers, blocking BR-101 highway in Palhoca, in the metropolitan region of Florianopolis, Santa Catarina State, Brazil, on October 31, 2022, as an apparent protest over Bolsonaro’s defeat in the presidential run-off election. (ANDERSON COELHO/AFP via Getty Images)
“In each place the situation is different, because there is no leadership to negotiate,” the PRF said, explaining that individual truckers appear to be coordinating with each other via social media, without any central leadership.
A supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro holds a Brazilian national flag during a blockade on the Via Dutra BR-116 highway between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, in Barra Mansa in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, on October 31, 2022, (MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty Images)
Brazilian media reported on stopped buses filled with fidgety passengers, some angered by the road blockages but others supportive of the trucker demonstration.
Trucker’s union officials distanced themselves from the protest and said the group of participating drivers was “small, isolated, and linked to the far right,” as union chairman Wallace Landim put it to the Brazilian Report.
“This is not the time to stop the country,” said Landim, who was involved in the massive ten-day 2018 trucker’s strike. Bolsonaro endeared himself to truck drivers by supporting that action.
Bolsonaro offered no public comment on the trucker’s strike, or indeed the election, as of Monday afternoon, and has not officially conceded the race. Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court declared Lula the winner on Sunday with 50.9 percent of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent.
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