Latin America’s largest nation has marked a decisive break with a legacy of multiple military coups and attempted coups: For the first time in its history, Brazil tried and convicted the instigators of the most recent plot to overthrow a democratically elected government.
Voting 4-1, a panel of Supreme Court justices sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison, after finding him and seven others guilty. They had planned to overturn the 2022 election with military force and also assassinate current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his deputy. But in trial depositions, the top Brazilian army and air force commanders stated they told Mr. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, that they would not support a coup.
The military high command’s response, four decades after the last junta ceded power, confirms Brazilians’ established respect for civilian authority and little desire to return to rule by generals. Unelected officers, trained for warfare, are unskilled in governing civilian society or running an economy.
“We have already lived through dictatorships, and we don’t want any more,” The New York Times reported Mr. da Silva as saying in July.
Nonetheless, the trajectory of civilian rule has not exactly been smooth. “The Supreme Court has increasingly taken on a responsibility for cleaning up politics” in recent years, a Brazilian law professor told Monitor contributor Constance Malleret.
And the court’s ruling will test democratic resilience as there remain concerns over procedure, speed of the trial, and the scope of jurisdiction.
Having lost the previous election by only 2%, Mr. Bolsonaro still has sizable support – and a powerful ally in United States President Donald Trump. In July, Mr. Trump levied 50% tariffs on most imports from Brazil partly for what he called a “witch hunt” against a “good man.” The U.S. has also imposed banking and visa sanctions on government officials, including Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who last year fined the social media platform X for spreading election misinformation.
But according to the Atlantic Council think tank, U.S. actions have boosted Mr. da Silva at home and also shifted the country’s geopolitics. He successfully revived lagging trade negotiations with the European Union, and he has strengthened ties with China and India.
For now, Brazil’s elected leader is holding firm to the principles of national sovereignty and judicial process.
“The Supreme Court of a country has to be respected not only by its own country, but it has to be respected by the world,” he told The New York Times.
