Bolsonaro is left naked and alone

Archive photo of Bolsonaro at an event in Miami in 2020. CRISTOBAL HERRERA (EFE)

Brazil and its new government headed by Lula da Silva have felt supported worldwide in the face of the brutal terrorist attack on State institutions, which leaves the defeated former president Jair Bolsonaro more vulnerable and even abandoned by his old ultra-right defenders.

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The assault on the Brazilian Congress by followers of Bolsonaro, live

Few times in the past have Brazil and its government been so supported in the face of a fascist coup attempt as this time.

The major world powers such as the United States, China, Russia and the European Union have immediately reacted with strong condemnations and unconditional support for Lula and his government.

This has led the professor of the prestigious Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) Carlos Pereira to declare that the terrorist attacks "have strengthened Lula and isolated Bolsonaro."

The violent and destructive attack on the three State institutions, the headquarters of Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential residence, has politically strengthened Lula's new coalition government.

But it has also brought to the fore the possibility of legal action against the former president and leader of the fascist opposition, Jair Bolsonaro, who took several hours to condemn and only half-mouthed the coup attacks in Brasilia.

It is no secret that Bolsonaro's refuge in the United States, close to his personal friend Trump, where he had gone after his never-accepted defeat at the polls, was due to the fear of being arrested and tried here in Brazil for his repeated attacks. against democratic institutions and against Lula's victory.

And now?

This very morning the Brazilian press abounds in possible hypotheses about the fate of Bolsonaro after refusing to condemn yesterday's terrorist attacks without hesitation.

There are those who think that now the new government of Lula will be able to count on the help of the United States to extradite Bolsonaro, who could be tried not only for his lukewarmness in condemning the attacks against the institutions, but also for the accumulation of accusations that already fell on him. before his defeat at the polls.

Until the new Lula government came to power, Bolsonaro felt protected in some way in his attacks on the institutions by his friends sheltered in his government, beginning with the State Attorney General, who continued to protect him until the last moment.

Now the situation of the former president, along the lines of what happened with his personal friend Trump, has weakened and it is considered that the new Lula government, strengthened by his international support, will not allow him, directly or indirectly, from his American exile to continue supporting the coup movement

He could try this by making use of a handful of friends that he still has within the Army, which, during his four years in government, he showered with privileges.

The former president came to place more than 6,000 soldiers in his government and in other state institutions.

A lot will depend, say political analysts here in Brazil, on the relations that Lula is capable of establishing today with the military, with whom he always maintained positive relations in his past governments.

The first test will be whether or not he gets, without waiting any longer, for the Army to give the green light so that the Bolsonaro coup groups camped out for weeks at the gates of the barracks to abandon their protest and retire to their homes.

Until yesterday these coup leaders, many of them retired ex-military or relatives and friends of active military, were protected under the excuse that it was only about freedom of expression endorsed by law.

And now?

That is the big question that the military will have to clear up since, from his first statements, Lula, supported worldwide, does not seem in favor of waiting any longer and seems willing to place all his prestige in protecting democracy at any cost.

What gives Lula and his recently inaugurated government the greatest strength, received massively with applause by the democratic forces that felt threatened by the coup attacks of hard Bolsonarismo, is the blunt diplomatic forcefulness that he has immediately received from the top leaders of the various continents.

The worst thing, in effect, that could happen to Lula is that the country that has trusted him to get rid of the fascist nightmare of Bolsonarismo, could see him waver in the face of the clear and brutal coup challenge that he has just suffered in the first days of his mandate.

Yes, Bolsonaro was never so close to being extradited, tried and sentenced as now, after the brutal terrorist assault perpetrated by his followers at the very heart of the State.

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