Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Image: Isac Nóbrega/PR.
(The Post News) – Former Brazillian President Jair Bolsonaro’s conviction for plotting a coup has sparked street celebrations across Brazil, with progressives calling it a historic victory while Trump-aligned rightwing figures reacted with fury and threats. He was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison.
Chile’s President Gabriel Boric Font was among the first regional leaders to applaud the 27-year prison sentence handed to Jair Bolsonaro for leading a criminal network that tried to cling to power after his 2022 loss. “My respect to Brazilian democracy which fended off a coup attempt and today judges and convicts those responsible for it. They tried to destroy democracy and today it emerges strengthened,” Boric tweeted, adding: “Democracy always!”
Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro added that all putschists should be convicted. “Those are the rules of democracy.”
In Latin America, 11 September is strongly linked to memories of dictatorship and bloodshed: on this day in 1973, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, with US support, staged a coup in Chile that led to 17 years of military rule marked by killings and forced disappearances. But on Thursday jubilant crowds in Brazil’s capital, Brasília, celebrated how Bolsonaro’s conviction had given new meaning to the notorious date.
A carnival parade called the Victory of Democracy Procession is planned in Rio on Friday night. Bolsonaro is a Brazilian politician and former military officer who served as the 38th president of the country from 2019 to 2023. He previously served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1991 to 2019.
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