Ismael Lopes, 34, admits that he had thought about “making a joke” when he went to a vigil called by the senator (-RJ) in spite of his father. (PL) was preventively arrested that day before (Supreme Federal Court) Alexandre de Moraes.
“It wasn’t anything that planned,” he tells Sheet. “I would go to the vigil anyway. There was even talk in some groups that I would go and so on. But more to make a joke, record a little video here and there and leave.”
Until, according to Lopes, “the possibility arises of giving a speech, after I ask Flávio himself.” That’s when he takes the microphone and, surrounded by Bolsonarists, says that the former president should be condemned.
“We have been praying for justice in this country. We have been praying that those who dig graves fall into them. Not dead, because that is not what we want. We want them to be tried and condemned for what they did”, he states, to the astonishment of those who expected yet another sermon in favor of the former president.
Then he turns to Bolsonaro’s firstborn and says: “Like your father, who dug 700,000 graves during the pandemic, be judged by due legal process. Have your right to defense, but be convicted and answer for the crimes you committed.”
Lopes then states that all allies who make up “this evil horde” should also be punished. The mob interrupts him there, and then with kicks, punches and pushes.
Lopes is part of the Front of Evangelicals for the Rule of Law, which released this weekend a “clarification note” saying that the act “involving our brother in Christ” had an “individual and personal character”, and that the member of the group would have “the necessary support” in the face of the attacks he suffered.
This front is aligned with the progressive minority in evangelical churches and in Lula (PT) government events with the segment. Lopes himself met this year with Márcio Macêdo, then minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency.
“Always in this dispute related to faith and politics”, Lopes says he mobilizes “against the extreme right, against the overthrow of rights”.
He is an evangelical by birth, born into a family that attended the Assembly of God. He later migrated to a Baptist church and became acquainted with the Theology of Integral Mission, with a reading considered to be progressive of evangelical values.
He exposes his views on the left on social media, with allusions to Karl Marx, for example. A message highlighted on his Instagram says that “love for others is only possible with class hatred”. In the report he declares himself a communist of the Marxist-Lennist line, who fights for “better conditions for the working class in society”.
Lopes states that, “on the fateful day”, the Saturday (22) on which Bolsonaro was arrested, a pastor who was to speak at the vigil organized by Flávio was absent. He saw an opening and came forward to speak. Then a passage from the book of Ecclesiastes came to mind: “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it.”
“I reflected on the content of the text, bringing it to our reality”, he says. “Anyway, I’m interrupted, the violence starts. And then there’s that whole scene that ended up going viral in videos across Brazil.”
Recordings show him walking away from the act and being chased and attacked by some Bolsonaristas, while others ask for him to be released and that it was “a trap” that Lopes set. He is then rescued by a military police officer.
