Brazilians protest attempts to lessen Bolsonaro’s and his friends’ sentence
A legislative attempt to reduce the jail term of former President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies for conspiring to destroy democracy after he lost his 2022 reelection bid was met with protests by thousands of Brazilians in major cities on Sunday.
Social groups, artists, and political parties organized the protests, which condemned politicians for attempting to lessen the sentence for the former president, who was found guilty in September and sentenced to 27 years in prison, as well as for his followers who broke into government buildings after he lost.
The protest was the first such one since Bolsonaro, whose far-right movement changed Brazilian politics, began serving his prison term last month in a specially designed cell at a federal police headquarters in the country’s capital, Brasilia.
The largest city in Brazil, Sao Paulo, saw a smaller turnout than a similar protest in September, with roughly 15,000 people attending, according to experts from the University of Sao Paulo.
According to the bill’s sponsor, a conservative majority in the lower house of Congress passed a bill last week that may reduce Bolsonaro’s sentence to just over two years. The Senate still has to consider the bill.
Among the 20,000 or so protestors on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach was teacher Claudio Pfeil, who said he was there to demonstrate that Brazilians would not tolerate tolerance for anyone who attempted to subvert democracy.
“All of them are paying for their crimes,” he stated. “We won’t accept even a centimeter of retreat.”
Prominent Brazilian musicians, such as 83-year-old Caetano Veloso, who is well-known for his opposition to Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s, led the protest.
In a history marred by bloody coups, the Supreme Court’s conviction of Bolsonaro and his accomplices in the armed forces and government was the first time Brazil had punished military officers for trying to subvert democracy.
Bolsonaro’s followers who participated in the 2023 storming of Brasilian government buildings would likewise face less severe penalties under the existing bill. However, Bolsonaro, who is already 70 years old, would still be prohibited from holding public office for an additional thirty years.
If the law is approved by the Senate, leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in the 2022 elections and is to seek for reelection the following year, is anticipated to veto it. However, a veto might be overridden by Congress, which would probably result in Supreme Court litigation.
