In 2022, Brazilian voters kicked president Jair Bolsonaro out of office. He responded with an attempted coup. And now, he's being prosecuted for it:
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, was charged Tuesday with overseeing a vast scheme to hold on to power after he lost the 2022 election, including one plot to annul the vote, disband courts and empower the military, and another to assassinate the nation’s president-elect.This is how democracies defend themselves: with law and criminal charges. And as with South Korea, the contrast with America couldn't be clearer. And the refusal of America's political elite to defend their democracy and constitution from a violent insurrectionist is now having consequences all around the world.The accusations, laid out in a 272-page indictment, suggested that Brazil came strikingly close to plunging back into, in effect, a military dictatorship nearly four decades into its modern democracy.
Brazil’s attorney general, Paulo Gonet Branco, indicted Mr. Bolsonaro and 33 other people, including a former spy chief, defense minister and national security adviser, accusing them of a series of crimes against Brazil’s democracy. The charges essentially adopted recommendations from Brazil’s federal police made in November.
