In an unprecedented failure in Brazilthe First Chamber of the Supreme Court sentenced the former president on Thursday Jair Bolsonaro for coup attempt in 2022.
For the first time in the history of the country, a former head of state is sanctioned for crimes that threaten the democratic order.
Four of the five judges of a panel of the Federal Supreme Court voted in favor of a conviction, and sentenced him to 27 years and three months in prison. This, however, does not mean that it will be imprisoned immediately and for now will remain under house arrest.
After making known the sentence, the court panel has up to 60 days to publish the ruling. Once I do, Bolsonaro’s lawyers have five days to present clarification motions.
The judicial decision ends a turbulent chapter marked not only by the national political crisis, but also by the controversial international influence of the US president, Donald Trump, whose pressure tried to hinder the work of the judicial law in Brazil.
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The coup plot and the condemnation of the Supreme
The Supreme Court considered proven that Bolsonaro, who currently meets house arrest with an electronic ankle, led a criminal plot whose purpose was to destabilize the rule of law through the violent abolition of democratic institutions.
The charges include a coup attempt, qualified damage and serious threat, in addition to the deterioration of public heritage.
Together with Bolsonaro, seven members of the so -called “central nucleus” of the conspiracy were condemned, including former officials such as former Defense Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira and former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres.
For the Judges of the Brazilian Supreme, the coup maneuver was not the work of isolated disturbances, but of a hierarchical structure that co -opted the armed forces with the aim of perpetuating the power of the then president even after his electoral defeat against Lula da Silva.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, Rapporteur of the case, emphasized that the acts that occurred on January 8, 2023 were not simple provocation, but a serious and coordinated attack against the headquarters of the three powers, while Cristiano Zanin, president of the First and Exabogado Chamber of Lula, said the evidence demonstrates a plan to break the rule of law from within.
The Trump factor in the Brazilian crisis
The process against Bolsonaro, already complex and dividing within the political scene of Brazil, was also influenced by the active intervention of Donald Trump, who came to qualify the now condemned as “a great friend and a great gentleman.”
For months, the Republican ruler publicly supported his Brazilian ally and ex -president, and even applied 50 % commercial tariffs as political pressure.
However, neither this influence nor the attempts of their surroundings to press politically could twist the decision of the Brazilian Judiciary.
Trump considered the judicial process as a political persecution and tried to converge the international community in defense of Bolsonaro, who in turn insistently denied the legitimacy of Lula’s victory.
This Thursday, Trump was “surprised” by the conviction of the Brazilian former president, in his opinion “a good president” of Brazil, meanwhile; The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that “the United States will respond as this witch hunt.”
Trump concrete tariffs of 50 % to Brazil and Lula repudiates the “political motivation” of the fact
Bolsonaro, a turbulent legacy
Since its inception as a deputy in 1991, Jair Bolsonaro showed a combative and controversial style, marked by misogynist and racist speeches, and by an explicit nostalgia by the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985), whose legacy defended with controversial phrases about torture and the use of violence.
The “error was torturing and not killing” the dissidents, he said before arriving at the Planalto Palace, lifted by the oligarchy, the evangelicals and a disenchanted middle class of the corruption of the left, whose leader, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, was taken from the political game after a judicial plot of which, after serving months in jail, he ended up being acquitted.
As president (2019-2022), Bolsonaro systematically despised the institutions, minimized the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic that killed some 700 thousand Brazilians, and promoted policies that increased deforestation in the Amazon.
In addition, his mandate was marked by the constant confrontation with the left and the discredit to electoral and judicial systems.
After losing the 2022 elections, Bolsonaro and its closest circle began a systematic campaign to delegitimize the electoral result and, together with ultra -right sectors, tried to prevent democratic transition.
That movement culminated on January 8, 2023 with the violent assault on the government’s headquarters and courts, which sealed its destination before the court.
Bolsonaro clan and electoral resistance
The Bolsonaro family clan, with his wife Michelle and his five children, remains very politically active.
Flávio, Senator, and Eduardo, deputy who resides in the United States, continues to defend the figure of his father. The latter holds a campaign before the Trump government that has failed to dismantle the judicial process in Brazil.
Despite the conviction and its house arrest, Bolsonaro maintains its resistance speech and has continued to promise to continue the political struggle, even announcing its intention to compete in the 2026 elections, although it will be disabled.
Meanwhile, his followers have demonstrated in his favor in the main cities of Brazil, while his detractors have shown their support for the decision of the Supreme Court and request the imprisonment of the ex -president.
