Bolsonaro supporters rally in São Paulo
Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro gathered on Sunday afternoon (Feb. 25) on Paulista avenue in São Paulo. Wearing yellow T-shirts and carrying flags of Brazil and Israel, they arrived at the rally in buses with license plates from outside of the city as well as other states.
The onetime president—who has been banned by the Superior Electoral Court from running for public office until 2030 for misusing economic power—criticized the decisions of the Supreme Court and called for amnesty for those convicted of the January 8 riots, who he named “allies.”
Bolsonaro is being investigated by the Federal Police and the Supreme Court over the attack launched on January 8, 2023, on government headquarters in Brasília in a bid to abolish the democratic rule of law and stage a coup d’état.
In his speech, Bolsonaro admitted the existence of a draft text that provided for a state of siege, the arrest of parliamentarians, and Supreme Court justices and provided support for an alleged coup d’état. However, he criticized the criminal probes into the document.
Copies of this document were found by the police at the home of Bolsonaro’s former Justice Minister Anderson Torres and at the Liberal Party (PL) office in Brasília, of which the former leader is a member. The draft was also mentioned in the plea bargain agreement of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, who served as aide-de-camp to Bolsonaro.
Other details are being investigated, such as a video of a meeting held at the Alvorada presidential residence in July 2022. On that occasion, direct aides to the former president and a group of military officers suggested alternatives for attacking the electronic electoral system as well as the 2022 presidential election.
