Support Dissolves as Bolsonaro Starts 27-Year Jail Term
Support Dissolves as Bolsonaro Starts 27-Year Jail Term
"I do sense this is a very dangerous moment for the Bolsonaro family," said AS/COA's Brian Winter to The Guardian.
A few hours before Jair Bolsonaro was ordered to start his 27-year coup sentence in a parking space-sized room, Arley Xavier stood outside the former president’s new home putting a brave face on his leader’s bind.
“It’s not over. There’s still so much Jair Messias Bolsonaro needs to do here in Brazil … No, it’s not over,” insisted the 21-year-old activist, urging conservatives to rise up against Bolsonaro’s imprisonment by flocking to the capital, Brasília, to protest.
During his 2019-2023 presidency, the far-right populist drew huge, impassioned crowds to the streets of cities such as Brasília, Rio and São Paulo. But there was no sign of a right wing rebellion this week as Bolsonaro languished in his room on a federal police base. Xavier, who had travelled to the capital for the occasion, was one of only about two dozen protesters outside as the disgraced politician faced up to a future of isolation inside. The mood in Bolsonaro’s leaderless camp was captured by the unusually rainy weather in Brazil’s often scorching midwest. [...]
Not everyone is certain Bolsonaro’s downfall is sealed, however.
“I do sense this is a very dangerous moment for the Bolsonaro family. We are not seeing much support on the streets,” said Brian Winter, the editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly.
Winter suspected Bolsonaro and his politician sons had “made a critical mistake” in recent months by relentlessly denouncing his treatment and lobbying Donald Trump to punish Brazil with sanctions and tariffs for the supposed “witch-hunt”. “Their messaging has been so focused on their own victimhood … that one wonders whether they have failed to talk enough about the challenges facing everyday Brazilians. Perhaps as a result they have lost their contact with the people,” he said...
