Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will not be able to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration next Monday (20) in Washington D.C., despite claiming to have received an invitation from the elected President of the United States.
Due to the legal proceedings he is facing in Brazilian courts, Bolsonaro had his passport confiscated by the Federal Police at the request of the Supreme Federal Court of the country. Upon allegedly receiving Trump’s invitation, Bolsonaro requested permission from the court to attend the event. The request was denied by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who argued that “The scenario that justified the imposition of prohibition from leaving the country, with the surrender of passports, continues to indicate the possibility of an attempt at evasion by the indicted Jair Messias Bolsonaro to escape the application of criminal law.”
The American newspaper The New York Times interviewed Bolsonaro about his attempt to attend Trump’s inauguration, highlighting how different the fates of these two politicians with such similar views have been.
While Trump returns to the most powerful position in the world, Bolsonaro stays home under judicial orders.
Three distinct criminal investigations are underway, and there are widespread expectations in Brazil — including from Bolsonaro himself — that he may soon be at the center of one of the most high-profile trials in Brazilian history.
“I am being watched all the time,” Bolsonaro told the NYT during an interview in which he expressed grievances, repeated conspiracy theories, and confessed his anxiety about his future. “I think the system doesn’t want me in prison; it wants me eliminated.”
But events in the U.S. give Bolsonaro hope. Mr. Trump, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg are leading a global effort for freedom of speech, he said, and he hopes this could somehow transform the political landscape in Brazil. “Social media decides elections,” he told the newspaper.
Bolsonaro accuses Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes of censoring conservative voices and politically persecuting him. Justice Moraes has indeed become one of the most aggressive internet enforcers, ordering social media platforms to block at least 340 accounts in Brazil since 2020, often keeping his reasons secret, the NYT reports.
Bolsonaro said he was delighted last week when Zuckerberg, the owner of Meta, said his company would “work with President Trump to turn against foreign governments that want to ‘censor more.’” One of his main examples was the “secret courts” in Latin America “that can order companies to quietly take things down.”
Brazilian authorities understood the message. The next day, Justice Moraes warned that social media could only operate in Brazil if they followed Brazilian law, “regardless of the bravado of big tech executives.”
Bolsonaro has a different view. “I’m liking Zuckerberg,” he told the NYT. “Welcome to the world of good people, of freedom.”
How exactly will Trump and the tech executives affect his many legal and political challenges? Bolsonaro was vague. “I won’t try to give Trump any tips, never,” he said. “But I hope his policy really spreads to Brazil.”
The NYT interviewed Elizabeth Bagley, the U.S. ambassador to Brazil, who said Bolsonaro’s hope that the U.S. could rescue him is absurd. The U.S. government does not interfere in the judicial process of another country, she said.
But Bolsonaro has bigger problems than censorship. Last year, Brazil’s federal police formally accused him of three crimes.
In the first, the police say Bolsonaro received money from the sale of jewelry he received as gifts from the state, including a diamond Rolex watch from Saudi Arabia, which his aide sold in a Pennsylvania mall. Bolsonaro blamed the situation on unclear rules about who owned such gifts.
In a second case, the police say he was involved in a scheme to falsify his COVID-19 vaccination records so he could travel to the United States. Bolsonaro said he did not receive the vaccine but denied knowing of efforts to falsify his records.
And in the most serious accusation, the police say Bolsonaro “planned, acted, and had direct and effective control over” a conspiracy to execute a coup.
The federal police recently released two reports totaling 1,105 pages detailing their accusations, including that Bolsonaro personally edited a national state of emergency decree designed to prevent the election winner, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from taking office.
Bolsonaro abandoned the plan after presenting it to three Brazilian military leaders, two of whom refused to participate, the police said.
In the NYT interview, Bolsonaro vehemently denied any coup plan — after all, he said, he handed over power — but admitted to discussing the decree. “I won’t deny that to you,” he said. “But in the second conversation, it was abandoned.”
He said he considered a state of emergency because he believed the election had been stolen, but Justice Moraes had blocked his party’s request to annul the results. Then his team realized that Congress would also have to approve the measure. “Forget it,” he said. “We lost.”
However, the police said there was a much darker plan at the center of the conspiracy: to assassinate Lula, his running mate, and Judge Moraes. The police arrested five men they accuse of planning the murders, four of them from an elite Brazilian military unit.
The men, the police said, were sent to Judge Moraes’ neighborhood several weeks before Lula’s inauguration. They were prepared to kidnap the judge but abandoned the plot after Bolsonaro did not declare the state of emergency, the police said.
The police said Bolsonaro was aware of the plan. The closest evidence the police released was that the plan had been printed in the presidential offices and then taken to the presidential residence.
Bolsonaro denied knowing anything about such a conspiracy. “Whoever made this possible plan must answer,” he said. “From my part, there was no attempt to execute three authorities.”
He then downplayed the accusations. “Even so, I think it was just another fantasy — bravado. Nothing. This plan is unfeasible. Impossible,” he said. He admitted he knew the accused leader of the conspiracy. “Everyone is responsible for their actions,” he said. “Although, as far as I know, he hasn’t taken any action.”
The Attorney General of Brazil is assessing whether to indict the former president, which would likely lead to a high-profile trial this year and a possible prison sentence.
While maintaining his innocence, Bolsonaro admits he worries about his freedom because Judge Moraes could help convict him. “I’m not worried about being judged,” he said. “My concern is who will judge me.”
Very different from the U.S., Brazil’s courts have already taken action. Six months after he left office, Brazil’s electoral court barred Bolsonaro from running for president until 2030 due to his attacks on Brazil’s voting systems.
Bolsonaro called the decision “a rape of democracy” and said he was trying to find a way to run in next year’s presidential election.
Polls show Bolsonaro remains by far Brazil’s most popular conservative candidate, but many on the right are seeking new options.
Source: Original text from The New York Times