Lula in the crosshairs?

If the pro-Bolsonaro riots on January 8, 2023, were not enough to underline the serious threats against Brazil’s democracy in recent years, the last couple of weeks have put that discussion to bed.

Last week, a man blew himself up after launching explosives at the Supreme Court building in Brasília. Subsequent digging found that the bomber had plans to attack Justice Alexandre de Moraes and others he accused of being “communist enemies of the country.”

The incident almost immediately put paid to any talk of an amnesty for those arrested for their involvement in the January 8 riots.

But the stakes got even higher this week, with a Federal Police operation that arrested a group of Army special forces officers who allegedly plotted to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Justice Moraes.

The operation was part of a broader investigation into an attempted coup in the aftermath of the 2022 election, which far-right then-President Jair Bolsonaro lost to Lula by a narrow margin. The thinking behind the assassination plot, therefore, would be to stop Lula from taking office and set up a temporary military committee to run the country, and then reinstate the defeated Mr. Bolsonaro.

That investigation concluded this week, with the Federal Police sending their final report to the Supreme Court. As expected, the police recommended charges against Mr. Bolsonaro (along with 36 of his acolytes) for the crimes of violent abolition of the rule of law, coup d’état, and conspiracy.

And to think, just a couple of days before all of this ignited, Brazil’s biggest newspaper ran an op-ed written by Mr. Bolsonaro, hailing the victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. and urging the Brazilian people to “accept democracy.” Indeed.

Check out the creation of this cartoon here on The Brazilian Report’s TikTok account (@brazilianreport).

The post Lula in the crosshairs? appeared first on The Brazilian Report.