The Latin American Report # 552

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes restricted the public spaces where politicians and supporters of Jair Bolsonaro can gather to protest against the precautionary measures imposed by the magistrate himself. De Moraes' public aim is to prevent the social conditions that could lead to events similar to those of January 8, 2023, when the headquarters of Brazil's main government branches suffered an assault strikingly similar to the one on January 6, 2021, attack in Washington. The judge, who punished Bolsonaro for allegedly conspiring with Trump to undermine the judicial process, ruled against the establishment of "any encampments within a 1-kilometer radius of the Three [State] Powers Plaza, the Ministries Esplanade, and, obviously, in front of military barracks." The measure is being denounced as authoritarian or as a sign of judicial dictatorship, as it undeniably curbs somehow the right to protest.

Cuba

This July 26 marked the 72nd anniversary of the assault on the Moncada Barracks, the action through which Fidel Castro introduced himself to the Cuban people as a credible alternative to the de facto political regime established by Fulgencio Batista over a year earlier. Castro's reasoning for that action was that, by then, it was clear there was no solution other than armed struggle to restore the constitutional order interrupted by Batista, which was based on the politically progressive but poorly implemented 1940 Constitution.

Militarily, the Moncada Barracks assault failed to achieve its objectives, but it served, as Castro later said, as a kind of small engine that awakened revolutionary sentiment among the population. Fidel survived the indiscriminate massacre unleashed by Batista's dictatorship forces, was imprisoned, and later pardoned, a later disputed measure that allowed him to travel to Mexico to establish a training base and then return to launch his revolution in December 1956, which triumphed just over two years later.

Since 1959, July 26 has been a classic celebration day of the Cuban Revolution, on par with—if not greater than—January 1, the date of its victory. So this Saturday, the controversial and unpopular Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz delivered the keynote speech at the annual commemoration of the assault, held in the central province of Ciego de Ávila. Marrero has held this position since 2019, when it was reinstated after Cuba's first socialist constitution, adopted in 1976, abolished it.

Another popular, historical celebration in Latam 👇