First as tragedy, then as farce
Now if only we could have done that.
Bolsonaro found guilty of plotting coup
Four out of the five Supreme Court justices tasked with judging the former leader found him guilty. One judge voted to acquit him.
The 70-year-old has been convicted of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
While the plot failed to enlist enough support from the military to go ahead, it did culminate in the storming of government buildings by Bolsonaro’s supporters on 8 January 2023, the justices found.
Sound familiar at all?
The charges carry heavy sentences and could add up to a prison term of more than 40 years. The justices have begun with the sentencing.
Casting the decisive vote, Justice Cármen Lúcia said on Thursday that Bolsonaro had triggered the “insurgency” of 8 January 2023, when thousands of his supporters vandalised the Supreme Court, the presidential palace, and Congress.
She found him guilty on all the five charges: attempting to stage a coup, leading an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, and two more charges related to the damage of property during the storming of buildings in Brasília on 8 January 2023.
Why couldn’t we do that? How did we manage to let him get away with it and then re-elect him?
Justice Lúcia compared the attempted coup to a “virus”, which, if left to fester, can kill the society in which it has taken hold in.
Can confirm.
Rubio’s threatening to “respond accordingly to this witch-hunt,” so you better lay in a good stock of coffee before prices go even higher. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/rubio-vows-us-response-following-conviction-brazils-bolsonaro-2025-09-11/
At least something good came out of Jan 6–an object lesson for nations that don’t want to become tinpot dictatorships.
As someone who has been trying to figure out where I can emigrate to, it seems like a country that actually honors the rule of law would be a pretty good choice.
As to how we got here? The wheels of justice turn too slowly. The decision not to hand down sentences after Trump’s convictions in order “not to influence the elections,” and the derailment of the clear case the election interference by an affair involving the prosecution team, show how broken we are in prosecuting our crooked politicians. The idea that the President is above the law is also a dangerous idea.