Two years and ten days after a mob of his partisans invaded and trashed Brazil’s houses of government, the law has come for Jair Messias Bolsonaro. The former far-right president of Brazil stands accused, in concert with thirty-three of his closest allies, of leading a criminal conspiracy to carry out the “violent abolition” of Brazil’s democratic order, as well as planning the assassination of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. If convicted, the sixty-nine-year-old could face more than forty years in jail.
The charges levied by Paulo Gonet, Brazil’s attorney general, followed a yearlong investigation into the attempted insurrection of January 8, 2023. A damning report released by Gonet late last year accuses Bolsonaro not only of orchestrating a coup to retain the presidency following his election loss to Lula in October 2022 but conspiring with members of the military to assassinate his political opponents outright. Bolsonaro has vehemently denied the allegations, expressing his “astonishment and indignation” at what he describes as a baseless witch hunt.
Earlier this week Gonet summarized the stakes in grave terms: “What was being called for — let it be said — was nothing other than a military coup.” The state claims to have amassed a wealth of evidence demonstrating that 8/1, as the failed insurrection is known in Brazil, was a premeditated attempt to overturn a democratic election and retain power through force.
It is very likely that the case will proceed to trial. When and where that will occur is already disputed, with Supreme Court justice Moraes already expressing his eagerness to reach a judgment before next year’s presidential elections. Bolsonaro was banned for running in…
Auteur: Tyler Antonio Lynch
