Police accuse 37 people of crimes including conspiracy and trying to tear down one of world’s largest democracies
Summary
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro and 36 others have been charged by federal police with conspiracy and attempting to overthrow the country’s democracy through a right-wing coup.
The accused include top allies, such as former defense ministers and intelligence officials.
The charges follow an investigation into efforts to dismantle the constitutional state, backed by evidence from financial records and plea deals.
This comes days after arrests in a separate plot to assassinate President Lula da Silva and other officials.
Bolsonaro denies involvement in the 2022 election conspiracy.
On 30 June 2023, the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court barred Bolsonaro from running for public office until 2030 as a result of his attempts to undermine the validity of Brazil's 2022 democratic election, as well as for abuse of power with regard to using government channels to promote his campaign
In February 2024, the Brazilian Federal Police raided former government officials and ordered Bolsonaro to hand in his passport over accusations that he and his allies tried to overturn the results of the 2022 election and planned a coup d'état.[180] In March 2024, witness documents released by the Superior Electoral Court were made public. According to two military officials, Bolsonaro had plotted to overturn the 2022 results and presented top military officials a plan to carry out a coup with the goal of keeping him in power.
I was trying to go for the most savage burn. I'm sure there are still institutional problems with the system in Brazil, but it's been doing some good work on the high level (fining twitter, banning bolsonaro)
And insofar as Brazil isn't a democracy it's a kritarchy (rule of judges) which is generally supportive of democracy over autocracy so it's no wonder that Bolsonaro and his goons are in deep shit. They're enjoying throwing the book at him.
We do kinda have a two party system tho, and there is already a bigger asshole (Pablo Marcal) planning to run for president, after getting thrid place in the biggest city.