Bullets, Bibles, and Beef: Conservative Coalitions in the Disputes over Rights in Brazil's Recent History

Brazil’s conservative coalitions gained significant strength during Jair Bolsonaro’s government, and their agenda continues to resonate even after the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Intertwined with Brazil’s authoritarian political history, certain sectors of agribusiness, public security and churches remain central to public life, while others have seen their influence grow amid the international rise of the far-right. This panel explores how actors within the 'BBB' (Bullets, Bibles, and Beef) coalition continuously engage in disputes over constitutional rights. The institutional spaces of the Brazilian state—the Judiciary, Executive, and Legislative branches—are occupied by conservative ideas that circulate among both politicians and civil society actors. In Brazil’s recent history, new interpretations of secularism, separation of powers, and even democracy have been repurposed as tools in their political strategies.

Speakers

Adriane Sanctis de Brito, Associate, Harvard History Department; Co-Founder, Center for the Analysis of Liberty and Authoritarianism (LAUT)

Luciana Silva Reis, Professor, University of Sao Paulo, Law School (as of February 2025); Co-Founder, LAUT

Ana Silva Rosa, Researcher, LAUT

Mariana Celano de Souza Amaral, Researcher, LAUT

Moderated by Yanilda González, Ford Foundation Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

About the Speakers

Adriane Sanctis de Brito is an Associate at Harvard's History Department. She co-founded and directed LAUT, an independent think tank focused on liberties and authoritarianism in Brazil, where she leads research projects related to political uses of law and rights by conservative and reactionary actors in the country's recent history. She holds a bachelor’s, a master's degree and a PhD in law from the University of Sao Paulo. Former lecturer at the International Relations Institute, USP, she was also a Sasakawa Young Leaders Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki, and a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Fellow at the University of Melbourne. She is a co-author of The Law of the Beef, the Bullet, the Bible: Democratic Crisis in Disputes Over Rights (2024, Tinta da China, in Portuguese)

Luciana Silva Reis is a Professor at the University of Sao Paulo, Law School (as of February 2025) and Associate Researcher at the Law & Democracy Unit at the Brazilian Center for Analysis & Planning – CEBRAP. . She co-founded LAUT, an independent think tank focused on liberties and authoritarianism in Brazil, where she leads research projects related to political uses of law and rights by conservative and reactionary actors in the country's recent history. She holds a bachelor’s, a master’s, and a PhD degree in law from the University of São Paulo. Former researcher at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. She is a co-author of The Law of the Beef, the Bullet, the Bible: Democratic Crisis in Disputes Over Rights (2024, Tinta da China, in Portuguese)

Ana Silva Rosa is a Researcher at the Center for the Analysis of Liberty and Authoritarianism, LAUT. Previously, she was a Visiting Researcher at the Afro-Latin American Research Institute, ALARI, Harvard University. She is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the Institute of Social and Political Studies of the State University of Rio de Janeiro. She holds a master’s degree in political science from IESP-RJ. She is a co-author of The Law of the Beef, the Bullet, the Bible: Democratic Crisis in Disputes Over Rights (2024, Tinta da China, in Portuguese).

Mariana Celano de Souza Amaral is a Researcher at the Center for the Analysis of Liberty and Authoritarianism, LAUT. She is a PhD candidate in the Graduate Program of Sociology at the University of Sao Paulo and holds a master’s degree in Sociology from the same institution. She is a co-author of The Law of the Beef, the Bullet, the Bible: Democratic Crisis in Disputes Over Rights (2024, Tinta da China, in Portuguese)

About the Moderator

Yanilda María González is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her research focuses on policing, state violence, and citizenship in democracy, examining how race, class, and other forms of inequality shape these processes. González’s book Authoritarian Police in Democracy: Contested Security in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2020), studies the persistence of police forces as authoritarian enclaves in otherwise democratic states, demonstrating how ordinary democratic politics in unequal societies can both reproduce authoritarian policing and bring about rare moments of expansive reforms. Authoritarian Police in Democracy received the Gregory Luebbert Prize for Best Book in Comparative Politics from the American Political Science Association (2022), as well as the Donna Lee Van Cott Award for Best Book on Latin American Politics and Institutions from the Latin American Studies Association (2022). González received the Clarence Stone Scholar Award from the Urban and Local Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (2022). González received her PhD in Politics and Social Policy from Princeton University. Prior to joining HKS she was an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. González previously worked at a number of human rights organizations in the US and Argentina, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, ANDHES, and Equipo Latinoaméricano de Justicia y Género.