Brazil takes a transcendental step against impunity. For the first time in history, a court has condemned a former already military president of high graduation for a coup attempt. Captain retired from the army, 70, has been sentenced in Brasilia for leading so as not to give power to his rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after losing the elections in 2022. This Thursday the First Chamber of the Supreme Court has reached the necessary major of law and belonging to criminal organization. Several generals have also been convicted of the attempt of Asonada. Despite the United States, the trial has continued its course. The Brazilian Court intends to decide penalties this Friday.
In the trial politically in recent years, Bolsonaro has also been convicted of damage to public goods and protected heritage. Neither he nor the (three generals, a admiral, a lieutenant colonel and two civilians) have come to the room. The previous president (2019-2022), in house prison, has followed him as a family from his home, also in Brasilia.
The decisive vote has been issued Thursday by Carmen Lúcia Antunes Rocha, the only woman in the high court. The judge considers that “a group composed of key government figures and led by Jair Bolsonaro carried out a progressive attack plan for democratic institutions with the aim of harming the alternation of power and undermine the other powers, especially the Judiciary.” After remembering that Brazil, the magistrate stressed that “the facts described have not been, in essence, denied” by the defendants.
The investigating judge, Alexandre de Moraes, and whom the plot wanted to kill, voted on Tuesday for condemning Bolsonaro for all crimes because, he said, the evidence shows that former president recruited, as part of “an authoritarian project of power”, men of his maximum confidence to orchestrate together a plan that would allow him to remain in power despite the electoral defeat of 2022.
These actions included disqualifying the electoral system, threats to the Judiciary, denouncing a non -existent fraud, planning the murder of the main authorities of the State, developing a draft to cancel the elections and try to recruit the dome of the Armed Forces to join the plot. And this Thursday has emphasized that “it was not a Sunday walk, a step through Disneyland, nor an act for spontaneous combustion. It was an attempt at the part of a criminal organization.” And he has issued a clip of the day Bolsonaro called the judge “scoundrel” and said that he would disobey his orders.
On Wednesday, Judge Luiz Fux issued in favor of acquitting Bolsonaro of all accusations for lack of evidence and also included the request to cancel the entire process by considering that the Supreme Court is not the competent court.
The coup movements culminated on January 8, a week after the inauguration of Lula. A mob of Bolsononistas in Brasilia, including the Supreme, which now hosts the trial of the coup plotters, in the style of the assault on the Capitol, in Washington. Bolsonaro was that day, a fact that his defense wields to disconnect him from the violence deployed. More than 600 people – the assonada troop – have been convicted.
Being disabled to appear to the elections until 2030 has not prevented Bolsonaro from exercising an undisputed leader of the opposition to the Lula government. Only home prison and judicial prohibition of using social networks have reduced their prominence in the last month. His conviction will have enormous effects on the race for the presidential ones of 2026. He is very likely to decide who is the right -wing candidate that is measured with President Lula, who intends to conquer a fourth mandate.
The risk of escape and the violation of various precautionary measures led Judge Moraes to confine Bolsonaro, confiscate his passport and place an electronic ankle in July and remove his passport in 2024. The Brazilian weighs asking for asylum in Argentina.
The crimes imputed to Bolsonaro total up to 43 years in jail. The judges will discuss the concrete penalty on Friday and Moraes fits where he will comply with a conviction, if he wants his health problems and his age; If in a Brasilia police station, in a special cell of a high security prison or in a barracks.
The Supreme Court, invaded by a Bolsononian mob in 2023, has reinforced security to such an extent that armed agents have flanked the court during the deliberations. Live broadcast takes the expectation, the suspense of the show at high levels, as Brazilians like. This is one of the most transparent cuts in the world. Although wrapped in the rites of the Supreme -“with the coming of excellence” -, the public has been able to witness the technical debates among the togos, but also some deep charges -from Fox to Moraes -, winks and some ironic notes that have unleashed laughter. Clips of the most dramatic moment of coup acts have also been issued.
For President Trump the process against Bolsonaro is nothing more than a gross political persecution, a witch hunt like the one he considers he suffered in the United States. And has been thoroughly used to neutralize the trial. He punished Brazil with tariffs and sanctioned several judges. Specifically, he froze the possible assets of Moraes in the US and withdrew the visas to all the members of the Supreme less than three: the two appointed by the so -called Trump of the tropics and the one who voted for his acquittal.
It is uncertain if this conviction is an end point, or a point and followed, in the political career of, in 2019. Finishing in jail was one of his nightmares. In August 2021, when the plot began to boast to answer the elections under false fraud premises to remain in power illegally, Bolsonaro proclaimed from the presidential palace: “I will get out of here imprisoned, dead or with victory. I mean the scoundrels that I will never be imprisoned.” The truth is that he lost the elections – so, for less than two points – and thoroughly maneuvered to prevent the transfer of power.
In these aciagos times for global democracy, Brazil launches a powerful message to the rest of the world with the verdict: justice can punish those who undermine from within the constitutional order and institutions. However, it could be a temporary victory. Bolsonaro and his faithful have stepped on the accelerator so that the Brazilian Congress approves an amnesty that free to the former president and others convicted of coup and the so -called democratic acts of criminal punishment. Several of the candidates to inherit their position as leader of the right and presidential candidate have promised the pardon.
