Endangered Scholars Worldwide Deplores Attack on Freedom of Expression in Brazil’s Universities

On June 18, 2020, Endangered Scholars Worldwide learned that Jair Bolsonaro’s attempt to intervene in the appointment of university deans was rejected by the Brazilian Congress. While we are relieved to hear this, we must remember that this trend will be in place for the foreseeable future. This is not the first time that Bolsonaro’s administration has attacked the independence of higher education institutions. As we reported, in 2019, Education Minister Abraham Weintraub accused the universities of making a “mess” and that is why the government is slashing university funding by 30 percent, a move that is said to be motivated by complaints about partisan activities on campuses.

To imagine the most recent government intervention as an isolated act, which will end with the legislature’s refusal, is a mistake. This is part of a project to repress academic freedom in Brazil. Committed to science, the university has become an enemy of the president. The attempted intervention was a pretext for the imposition of far-right ideologies in Brazil’s higher education. That is why we join academic, intellectual, and political leaders in Brazil and other regions to decry attacks on the country’s universities in the name of Bolsonaro’s wider aggressive, anti-progressive, and fascistic agenda.