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Brazil Supreme Court bars Trump-wannabe Bolsonaro from election until 2030, destroying his career [1]
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Date: 2023-06-30
Latinoamérica once again is showing us how it’s done. Scarcely half a year after the January 8, 2023 attack on Brazil’s capitol by supporters of ultra-right wing former president Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s Supreme Court concluded that Bolsonaro had abused his power by casting unfounded doubts on the nation’s electronic voting system and banned him from running for elected office until 2030, effectively destroying his political career.
Some readers may remember that eight days into this very busy year, a large gaggle of Brazilian domestic terrorists decked out in bright yellow sports jerseys attacked the midcentury modern-stylish seat of power in Brasilia, that nation’s capital, breaking into the building, smashing glass and vandalizing the interior.
The Brazilian federal government’s response under President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, generally referred to as Lula, was swift. Police from Brazil’s military made a strong show of force, arresting 1,200 of the assailants that very afternoon, and prosecutors were brought in from all over the country to promptly prosecute them. In less than two weeks the government had detained in Rio de Janiero state a man suspected of financing the terrorist attack.
“Trump of the Tropics” ex Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro, who, like Trump, voters dumped after just one term, did some time as a “Florida Man” before returning to Brazil to be banned by Brazil’s Supreme Court from running for elective office for until 2030 for “abuse of power.”
Photo source
Unlike government officials and media personalities in the U.S. after January 6, 2021, Lula promptly referred to the attackers as fascists and terrorists, and the governor of the capitol district publicly described the day’s events as acts of terrorists. And, in what was described (in Spanish) as “an unusual joint statement,” Brazil’s president, leaders of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies (Congress), and the head of the nation’s supreme court collectively rejected “acts of terrorists, of vandalism, criminals and coup-plotters.”
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro, who once was referred to as the “Trump of the Tropics,” scurried off to — where else? — Florida, where he stayed for three months. Time magazine in early February published a droll piece about Bolsonaro’s “bizarre new life as a Florida Man,” describing the man who days earlier had been the leader of the world’s fifth largest country as
wandering around Florida supermarkets, eating fried chicken alone at fast-food restaurants, and holding court for supporters from the driveway of a modest home owned by a former ultimate-fighting champion in a gated community south of Orlando.
After his three-month stint in Florida, Bolsonaro — who had not conceded defeat — returned to Brazil. His return was moderately triumphant, if NPR is to be believed. NPR further reported that
Echoing election denial claims in the U.S., Bolsonaro claimed that Brazil's electronic voting system was prone to fraud, and his supporters have claimed the election was rigged.
Hogwash, ruled Brazil’s Supreme Court. As the AP reports:
A panel of judges voted Friday to render far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ineligible to run for office again after concluding that he abused his power and cast unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system.
According to Time, some usual Trump-orbit suspects including Steve Bannon and Donald Jr., along with other MAGA figures,
joined [Bolsonaro] in pushing unfounded conspiracies about widespread voter fraud in Brazil.
Quoted by the AP, Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Inspir University in Sao Paolo, said,
“This decision will end Bolsonaro’s chances of being president again, and he knows it. After this, he will try to stay out of jail, elect some of his allies to keep his political capital, but it is very unlikely he will ever return to the presidency.”
South of the border it’s been speculated that Bolsonaro could be headed for prison.
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