Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s Former President, has been named a suspect in an investigation into whether his government plotted a military takeover of the country. The plan, which was effectively put into place when Bolsonaro lost the 2022 election to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had been in place for months before the election.
According to Al Jazeera, police arrived at Bolsonaro’s beach house in Rio de Janeiro to demand his passport. The family spokesman, Fabio Wajngarten, confirmed today, on Thursday, February 8th, that he turned in to the authorities.
The scenes after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated were dramatic, and they brought up comparisons to what happened at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021. On January 8th, 2023, a week after the inauguration, thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro stormed into Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace in protest of Bolsonaro’s loss. Police managed to control the situation, but the country remained in turmoil for days.
This is partly because for months before the election, Bolsonaro and his allies, reminiscent of Donald Trump, made unsubstantiated allegations about the Brazilian electoral system’s unreliability – allegations that police are now saying were all part of a plot to provide political cover for a possible military takeover. But Bolsonaro and his allies didn’t stop there because new reports indicate they also went ahead with actual logistical planning for that military takeover in coordination with military officials.
Last year Brazil’s Supreme Court banned Bolsonaro from running for office again until 2030 due to his repeated insistence that the last election was stolen from him. Bolsonaro has, much like Trump, maintained his defiant attitude about his electoral defeat and has expressed on multiple occasions his desire to run for the Presidency again.
Whatever police have on Bolsonaro, it’s enough to order him to surrender his passport. Some reports indicate there is even video of him and his allies planning the coup. Either way, unlike Donald Trump, it seems like reality is actually catching up to Jair Bolsonaro and doing so really fast.