Brazil’s former president was sentenced to 27 years in jail late final yr for plotting a coup. The small print might sound acquainted: Jair Bolsonaro misplaced an election. He claimed it was stolen from him and rallied supporters to storm the nation’s capital, Brasilia. The rebel even occurred in early January (2023).
Nonetheless, the parallels between Bolsonaro and President Donald Trump return loads additional than the coup try. Bolsonaro rode a wave of voter discontent to the Brazilian presidency in 2018. He was a populist and a nationalist with anti-democratic impulses, an itchy set off finger on Twitter, and, possibly most significantly, about half his nation firmly behind him.
He even received himself nicknamed “The Trump of the Tropics.”
However when the mud settled, after Bolsonaro’s failed coup try, the 2 presidents’ paths diverged. Bolsonaro was indicted, tried and convicted for inciting his followers and making an attempt to overthrow the rightfully elected authorities.
He’s in jail and barred from operating for workplace for many years to return.
In america, in the meantime, Trump is again in workplace.
To search out out why one former president is behind bars whereas the opposite is again in energy, Vox’s Zack Beauchamp traveled to Brazil.
As Beauchamp tells As we speak, Defined host Noel King, he was all in favour of “why Brazil’s establishments, its Congress and its Supreme Court docket have been a lot extra resistant than their American friends to energy grabs and makes an attempt to rule as an imperial government than the US ones have been.”
The reply is advanced however stuffed with classes for the US. For extra, hearken to our episode that traces the rise — and fall — of Bolsonaro, and listen to what America could possibly borrow from Brazil’s chaotic political system.
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This story was supported by a grant from Shield Democracy. Vox had full discretion over the content material of this reporting.
