The offensive sponsored by starting has as its public face, in addition to the parliamentarian himself, the grandson of former president João Figueiredo, Paulo Figueiredo. There is, however, a third Bolsonaro supporter who also makes up the group, but far from the spotlight and social media.
This is the former Bahian PM André Porciuncula, right-hand man of Mario Frias in Culture during the government of .
According to allies of the former President of the Republic, the former PM aligns himself with Eduardo’s critical speech in relation to the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) — largely due, they say, to the frustrated attempt by Bolsonaro’s son to, at the end of 2022, appoint Porciuncula as Secretary of Culture of São Paulo.
In , Eduardo told his father that Tarcísio had never helped with anything at the STF and that he was simply “standing by” and “warming up for 2026”.
Porciúncula was National Secretary for Incentives and Promotion of Culture under Mario Frias in the Culture secretariat — an area that in the Bolsonaro government did not have the status of a ministry, being linked to the Tourism department. In December 2022, he held command of the secretariat for less than a month.
In the department, he was involved in controversies such as the defense of weapons projects in culture and a five-day trip to Los Angeles for just two meetings — one of which was attended by Eduardo Bolsonaro, of whom he is a friend, and who was on vacation with his family in the USA.
Porciuncula tried to be elected by the PL for a term in 2022, as a federal deputy, and 2024, as a councilor in Salvador, but failed in both attempts. In the first, he had 82,693 votes in the state. In the second, 2,758 votes in the capital.
The former PM’s profiles on Facebook and Instagram have been inactive since October 2024, the date of the municipal election. On X (formerly Twitter) the last post is from May 2023, in which he says that “the legislator never dared to criminalize lies because he never, until then, dared to have the power to say what is or is not true.”
“This type of power is only possible in totalitarian regimes, in autocratic structures that do not admit divergences, only the political dogma of the party in power,” he wrote.
A military criminal action for desertion has been filed against the former PM in Bahia’s courts, with a complaint received, but suspended since August by court decision.
A Sheet sent a question, but was unable to speak to lawyer Gamil Foppel, who is on the list of defense lawyers for the case. He was also unable to obtain Porciuncula’s contacts.
The former PM even appeared as Eduardo’s partner in a company in Texas, Braz Global Holding LLC, as shown in a 2023 report made in partnership by .
Public data from the transparency website of the body that acts as the “Treasury Secretary” of the state of Texas informs that the company is currently inactive.
Eduardo Bolsonaro and Paulo Figueiredo lead a political and diplomatic lobby from the United States with the aim of putting pressure on Brazilian authorities in favor of Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest and sentenced by the STF (Supreme Federal Court) to a sentence of 27 years and three months for leading the 2022 coup plot.
In the midst of this action, the government announced the tariff against Brazil, citing Bolsonaro’s case as one of the justifications, and punished members of the STF, and other Brazilian authorities based on the Magnitsky Law, which in theory allows the US government to apply economic sanctions and restrictions to foreign people and entities identified as involved in corruption or serious human rights violations.
