ISLAMABAD: Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is returning to Brazil after spending months in the United States.
The far-right politician is making his first public appearance since supporters stormed the Supreme Court, Congress, and the presidential palace in January. The riots followed weeks of protests alleging fraud in his election defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Before boarding a flight in Florida, he said he would not lead the opposition to Lula. Bolsonaro, however, said in an interview with CNN that he would help his Liberal Party as a “person with experience” and that he planned to travel across Brazil to campaign in next year’s local elections.
After arriving at the Orlando airport, he spoke and took pictures with throngs of supporters. Bolsonaro is expected to arrive in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, early Thursday local time.
On his return, the former president will face many legal challenges, including an investigation into whether he incited rioters who stormed key government buildings a week after Lula’s inauguration. He is also embroiled in a scandal stemming from allegations that he attempted to illegally import and keep millions of dollars in jewellery given to him and his wife by Saudi Arabia in 2019.
When a member of Bolsonaro’s entourage attempted to bring the jewels into the country in 2021, they were impounded by Brazilian customs officials.
Federal police summoned Bolsonaro on Wednesday to testify in the Saudi case on April 5. Furthermore, he is facing 16 cases before Brazil’s Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which could prevent him from running for office for eight years, effectively eliminating him from the presidential race in 2026.
He left the country before his successor was sworn in in December, traveling to Florida and applying for a six-month tourist visa in the United States. Bolsonaro narrowly lost the presidential election to his left-wing rival last October, prompting his supporters to make unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud, which escalated into violent scenes in the capital. He has voiced “regret” for the unrest but he denies causing it.
However, Brazil’s Supreme Court agreed to include him in its investigation into the January 8th storming of government buildings.
On that day, thousands of radical Bolsonaro supporters stormed the country’s Supreme Court, Congress, and the presidential palace in Brasilia, claiming the election was rigged. For weeks, they had been camping in and around the city, calling for a military coup, and over 1,200 people have been charged in connection with the riot.
Brazilian Senator Marcos do Val claimed in February that Bolsonaro attended a meeting in December about a plot to keep him in power, alleging that he was asked to persuade the head of the electoral authority to compromise himself in order to discredit the presidential election. He and his representatives have not responded to do Val’s remarks. The return of Bolsonaro to Brazil raises risks and uncertainty for his country, the Lula administration, and himself. Predicting how the politically divided Brazilian public will react to his presence is difficult.
Bolsonaro had only appeared in the media on a few occasions over the last 89 days, as he spent his extended holiday in the United States.
He was occasionally seen eating at fast food restaurants as if he were just another tourist unwinding on his carefree Florida holiday. However, Bolsonaro is now returning home to a tense situation. According to Brazilian media, the federal police have activated special security plans for his arrival and have asked his supporters to refrain from organizing a large, crowded event to greet him at the airport.
Police objected to his initial desire to be driven through the streets of Brasilia in an open-top car. Authorities were also preparing to cordon off the Esplanade of the Ministries, the capital’s ceremonial heart and site of the government buildings stormed on January 8. Bolsonaro’s investigation into allegations that he and some of his close advisers instigated the rioting is not his only legal issue.
Several other investigations are being conducted by Brazilian authorities into allegations of his involvement in electoral disinformation and other potential irregularities, some of which could result in prison time. As a result, many Brazilian observers expected Bolsonaro to try to extend his stay in the United States. Instead, he is returning to Brazil to deal with a personal crisis.
Bolsonaro denied wanting to lead the opposition as he boarded his flight and now claims he only wants to offer the country his expertise after years of public service.
However, his arrival in Brazil will almost certainly cause additional problems for Lula, who is already struggling in the early months of his new administration to regain the popularity he enjoyed during his first presidency from 2003 to 2010. Bolsonaro remains a formidable foe who retains the support of millions of Brazilians.
He will almost certainly continue to be a divisive figure. Most people expect him to continue generating the high levels of controversy that he did while in office, when his abrasive style earned him the moniker “Trump of the Tropics.”
Bolsonaro’s return is likely to exacerbate the volatility of the Brazilian political scene and speculation about his own fate, political, legal, and otherwise.
