Passing sentence in Brazil: the jailing of Jair Bolsonaro

“Congress doesn’t work; I’d stage a coup on the same day [I was elected].” That’s how former army captain Jair Bolsonaro, then a mere congressman, put it to a reporter back in 1999 when asked what he’d do if in power. And that’s what Bolsonaro is now being sent to jail for, said Bernardo Mello Franco in O Globo (Rio de Janeiro): he’s the first former president in the 136 years of the Republic of Brazil to be convicted of an attempted coup.

As soon as he’d triumphed in the 2018 election, Bolsonaro had set out to destroy the system of checks and balances established by Brazil’s 1988 constitution. Seeking to initiate a new authoritarian state, “he militarised the government; tried to stifle the opposition; attacked the press and the universities”. And when his popularity took a dive during the pandemic and he was in danger of impeachment, he renewed his assault on the judiciary and sent tanks to the doors of congress, warning he’d only leave power if “imprisoned, dead, or victorious”.

But it’s what he did after he lost the 2022 election that has led to the supreme court, by a majority of four to one, sending him to jail for 27 years. He was convicted of charges including attempted coup d’etat and inciting the mob that invaded the supreme court after his defeat; the court also heard he was involved in a plan to assassinate both President Lula, the man who replaced him, and Alexandre de Moraes, the leading supreme court judge.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

And it’s important to note that high-ranking military officers were convicted alongside him, said Vinicius Torres Freire in Folha de Sao Paulo. It’s a historic milestone. If the top military men of yesteryear had known they risked jail, we might have been spared the long series of coup attempts between 1954 and 1977.

It’s a historic milestone all right, said Gazeta do Povo (Curitiba): but far from a reaffirmation of democracy, it’s a mark of “political vigilante justice”. As the one dissenting judge, Luiz Fux, pointed out, the evidence linking Bolsonaro to the mob attack was strikingly feeble. The case should have been tried by a full bench of 11 judges, not a panel of five, one of whom, Justice Moraes, was clearly biased. “Democracy isn’t strengthened by legally fragile convictions.”

On the contrary, the verdict sends a clear message “that justice can punish those who undermine the constitutional order and institutions from within”, said Naiara Galarraga Gortázar in El País (Madrid). But it may be only a temporary victory. Bolsonaro was already prohibited by law from running for office for eight years, but his supporters are campaigning to get congress to approve an amnesty. And his Liberal Party remains a very powerful force in Brazil’s politics, especially among the so-called “bible, beef and bullets” bloc of voters, said Christopher Sabatini on Chatham House. His conviction has already drawn thousands to the streets in protests. And, of course, he has the support of Donald Trump.

That he does, said Susan Stokes in the Los Angeles Times. Trump has damned the trial of his fellow right-winger as “a witch hunt”. In a clear but counterproductive attempt to influence the outcome of the trial, he imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil’s exports and placed sanctions on Justice Moraes. After all, Bolsonaro is a man built in Trump’s image, a man who, like him, has used his time in office to undermine independent public institutions and democratic accountability; a man who tried to cling to power after losing an election. That is why this verdict is such a breakthrough. For all its many problems, “the second-largest country in our hemisphere is schooling us in what democratic accountability looks like”.