Brazilian Left Welcomes Trial of Bolsonaro for Alleged Coup Attempt
"If Brazil had tried the crimes of the military dictatorship, it certainly wouldn't be trying another coup attempt now," said one leftist lawmaker. "We can't fix the past, but we can write a new story!"
Brazilian leftists including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hailed Wednesday's unanimous ruling by a panel of the Federal Supreme Court compelling former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and seven associates to stand trial for alleged crimes including an attempted coup d'état following his loss to Lula in the 2022 presidential election.
The panel voted 5-0 to accept a complaint filed by the office of Brazilian Attorney General Jorge Messias to indict Bolsonaro, former Brazilian Intelligence Agency Director Alexandre Ramagem, former Navy Commander Almir Garnier, former Justice Minister Anderson Torres, former Institutional Security Bureau Minister Augusto Heleno, former presidential aide Mauro Cid, former Defense Minister Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, and former Defense Minister and presidential Chief of Staff Walter Braga Netto.
Bolsonaro will stand trial for allegedly attempting a coup, involvement in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, violent damage of state property, and other charges. A coup conviction carries a sentence of up to 12 years' imprisonment under Brazilian law. However, if convicted on all counts, Bolsonaro and his co-defendants could face decades behind bars.
"It's clear that the former president tried to stage a coup."
The eight defendants are accused of being the "crucial core" of a plan to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which Lula narrowly won in a runoff. Like U.S. President Donald Trump in 2020, Bolsonaro and many of his supporters falsely claimed the contest was "stolen" by the opposition. And like in the U.S., those claims fueled mob attacks on government buildings. Around 1,500 Bolsonaro supporters were arrested in the days following the storming of Congress and the presidential offices.
In February, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet indicted Bolsonaro and 33 others for their alleged roles in a plot to overturn the election that included poisoning Lula and also assassinating Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexadre de Moraes, one of the five judges on the panel that issued Wednesday's ruling.
"It's clear that the former president tried to stage a coup," Lula, who is on a four-day state visit to Japan, said in response to the high court's decision. "It is clear from all the evidence that he tried to contribute to my assassination, assassination of the vice president, assassination of the former president of the Brazilian Electoral Court, and everybody knows what happened."
Lula said that Bolsonaro "knows what he did... and he knows that it was not right," adding that "he should prove his innocence... and he will go free."
"Now, he has no way of proving that he is innocent, since he has no way of proving that he did not attempt the coup," Lula added. "I just hope the justice system will do justice."
The former president is already banned from running for any office until 2030 due to his abuse of power related to baseless claims of electoral fraud.
Bolsonaro and his supporters have been pushing for amnesty, an effort Lula recently said "means he's basically saying, 'Guys, I'm guilty.'"
Erika Hilton, a member of the Chamber of Deputies—the lower house of Brazil's Congress—representing Rio de Janeiro in the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), said Thursday on social media, "NO AMNESTY FOR COUP PLOTTERS!"
"We cannot allow these people to be acquitted," Hilton stressed. "This is because the Bolsonarists in Congress want to pardon them, just as the coup plotters of 1964 were pardoned. And Brazil cannot make that mistake again."
Hilton was referring to the U.S.-backed coup that overthrew the democratically elected leftist government of President João Goulart and installed 21 years of military rule characterized by forced disappearances, torture—sometimes taught by U.S. operatives—and extrajudicial murder of at least hundreds of people.
Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who is a member of Lula's Workers' Party (PT), was tortured by the regime. Bolsonaro, an army officer during the dictatorship, has prasied the military regime while taunting its victims and lauding one of its leading torturers as a "national hero."
Other leftist lawmakers and observers invoked the dictatorship in urging the government to deliver justice to Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices.
"If Brazil had tried the crimes of the military dictatorship, it certainly wouldn't be trying another coup attempt now," argued Helder Salomão, a PT deputy from Espírito Santo. "It's also true that people like Bolsonaro wouldn't go this far. We can't fix the past, but we can write a new story!"
Ricardo Pereira, a professor and journalist, said on social media that "a despicable figure" like Bolsonaro would not have risen to power had Brazil tried dictatorship-era criminals, adding that "we are belatedly cleaning up history, but at least we are doing this."
Addressing reports that Bolsonaro may attempt to flee to Argentina—which is ruled by right-wing President Javier Milei—or the United States, where he applied for a visa amid his mounting legal troubles in 2023, Ivan Valente, a PSOL deputy representing São Paulo, said: "Thinking about escaping? It won't work, fugitive, you'll get jailed!"
A date for Bolsonaro's trial has not yet been set. The chair of the Supreme Court panel is expected to issue a legal framework within days.
"Then, [Moraes] prepares a report and requests a trial date," Eloísa Machado, a law professor at the Fundacão Getulio Vargas University in São Paulo, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "After this stage, prosecutors and defense attorneys will present their final arguments before the court rules on whether to acquit or convict."
Responding to Wednesday's ruling, Bolsonaro told the Supreme Court justices, "If I go to jail, I will give you a lot of work."
