Former Brazilian President Jaír Bolsonaro, who has spent more than a month in the U.S., is eyeing a return to Brazil.
The rightist politician let drop his intentions during a Saturday, February 11th speech to a Brazilian community in Florida, footage posted by CNN Brasil reveals. In Boca Raton, Bolsonaro told his audience that “there is no place like home … We know Brazil is a fantastic country.”
“I intend to return to Brazil in the coming weeks,” Bolsonaro said, as he extolled his government’s achievements. “We made a government without corruption. We worked with heart, with honesty. And we have to face the issues. We have to, sometimes, take risks. It is worth it. You can be sure, the majority of the Brazilian people are with us,” the former head of state concluded.
Since late December, Bolsonaro (Partido Liberal) has been living as a quasi-exile in the U.S. state of Florida, to which he traveled before his successor, the socialist Lula da Silva (Partido dos Trabalhadores), was sworn in on January 1st after winning the October 2022 presidential election.
Last month, it was announced that he had applied for a six-month tourist visa in the U.S., as his current visa was set to expire soon.
Whether Bolsonaro’s positive outlook on a return to his native country is warranted, remains to be seen, as it does not come without risk.
In Brazil, he is accused of being the firebrand behind a violent rebellion which is opposed to Lula’s appointment. On January 14th, Brazil’s Supreme Court agreed to open an investigation into Bolsonaro’s role in January 8th’s protests.
In a statement, the top public prosecutor’s office said the former president would be investigated for possible “instigation and intellectual authorship of the anti-democratic acts that resulted in vandalism and violence in Brasília [the country’s federal capital].”
During these protests, some three thousand, after having broken through a police blockade, stormed the parliament building, the presidential palace, and the Supreme Court in the federal capital of Brasília. Some windows of the parliament building were left smashed, while considerable damage had been done to the presidential palace. In response, army and military police were swiftly mobilized and employed in the arrest of some 1,200 protestors.
Bolsonaro’s supporters have claimed Lula’s election victory was achieved through fraudulent means. Mere days after Brazil’s presidential election, a citizen’s investigation brought to light irregularities in the tally of votes, with many for Bolsonaro inexplicably ending up lost.
Following the revelations, #BrazilWasStolen made the rounds on the nation’s Twitter, quickly becoming its top trending topic.
In response, the state of Brazil embarked upon a comprehensive crackdown. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) decided that doubting the election results in whichever form from henceforth would not be protected under free speech.
Subsequently, the ‘Brazil was Stolen’ website detailing election anomalies, together with its associated YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook accounts were all taken down.
In addition, any politician who had mentioned the possibility of electoral fraud, had their Twitter accounts blocked.
