Against the backdrop of the riots by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro about a week ago in the government complex in the capital Brasilia, during which extensive destruction was caused to the Congress building, the Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court, an investigation was opened against him.
The official section of the opened investigation is "rebellion for anti-democratic acts that led to vandalism and violence" and for being the "intellectual thinker" of the riots.
As you may recall, the violent break-in to the central government complex happened about a week after his opponent from the left, Luiz Incio da Silva, was sworn into office at the end of a close election campaign, in which Bolsonaro - who is considered a right-wing populist in the style of Donald Trump - has not yet admitted his defeat.
The investigation against the former president also includes the angry post that the president made shortly before the events.
The President of the Supreme Court, Alessandra de Morais, who ordered the opening of the investigation following a petition submitted by the General Prosecutor's Office, said in his ruling that a war of attrition must be waged against "those who plot against democracy and deny the authority of the state".
It is estimated that even if an indictment is not filed against him, he may be prevented from further running for the presidency.
Security forces in Brazil in front of the encampment of Jair Bolsonaro's supporters on January 9, 2023, a day after the uproar over Congress, Photo: Reuters/Ricardo Moraes
Bolsonaro is currently in the United States, where he arrived at the end of his term. Although he is currently allowed to remain in the United States under his previous visa, which is a diplomatic visa given to heads of state, in about a month he will have to return to Brazil or ask the American authorities to allow him to remain under another visa (if he has one).
The US already clarified last week that if an official request is submitted from Brazil in his case, they will cooperate with it, but did not say what would happen to his residence permit.
The former minister of finance under Bolsonaro, Anderson Torres, has already been arrested for the authorization he gave the protesters to demonstrate in the central government complex in the capital under his new hat as the chief of the federal police.
Among other things, a search of his house found a draft of an instruction to disrupt the election results.
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