Jair Bolsonaro at the American conservative annual meeting: "My mission is not over"

Sometimes, very rarely, the American right uses the word America to refer to the continent (America) and not to the country (United States), as when they say “America First” or “Make America Great Again”.

One of those rare occasions came this Saturday with the presence of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the closing day of the Conservative Action Political Committee (CPAC), a Republican annual meeting that has been held since Thursday in a gigantic hotel and convention center. in National Harbor, Maryland, south of Washington.

"In this land I feel in Brazil, the United States is the land of freedom, progress and order," said Bolsonaro, who has been living in Orlando for more than two months.

He arrived there to avoid the risk of imposing the presidential band and transferring power to his successor and rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who won the November elections.

In Florida, he also lives far from the various investigations opened against him in Brazil;

Of all of them, the most important, due to his role in the assault by thousands of his supporters on the Parliament, the Presidency and the Supreme Court of Brasilia on January 8.

Some images that in Washington refreshed the memory of the attack on the Capitol.

The audience, which only occupied half of the seats, received him standing up.

“It is not easy to be a politician if you want to be true to yourself and your beliefs.

For this reason, I thank God for my second life and for my first legislature.

But I feel that my mission is not over, ”he said in Portuguese, as he walked from one side of the stage to the other.

He boasted of his humble origins, his political curriculum, his achievements during his presidential term and the support he always enjoyed from the star of the day, former US President Donald Trump.

He quoted the gospels and denounced populism, corruption, and communism.

“In Brazil, private property is in danger, and it is one of the pillars of democracy,” he warned.

He also recalled the stabbing he suffered in 2018, attacked "gender ideology", advocated permissive laws with weapons ―"The armed people will never be enslaved, and an armed country will never be subjugated"― and stood out for his management of the pandemic: “I have always defended freedom.

I did not force anyone to get vaccinated in Brazil.”

A statement that drew the biggest ovation (certainly it was less when he said he preferred "any press to no press at all").

“They were saying, 'science, science, science.'

And I: 'freedom, freedom, freedom'.

He accompanied his presentation of images of massive rallies of the campaign that he lost to Lula.

He assured that he received much more support in those elections than in those of 2018, which helped him to slip the insidiousness that there was electoral fraud.

"I don't understand why the numbers showed otherwise," he added to the delight of the audience.

“Freedoms are like a great love;

you have to take care of it every day so as not to lose it ”, he affirmed, before advocating for the total liberalization of social networks.

After his speech, the question of when he intends to return to his country remained open.

At the beginning of February, she said during an act in an evangelical church that this would come “in the next few weeks”, an admittedly imprecise term.

On the CPAC stage, she did not elaborate on his plans as a tourist in the United States.

She also did not talk about the scandal with which Brazil had breakfast this Saturday, thanks to a revelation from the press.

Three days before the end of his presidency, Bolsonaro made one last use of his privileges to remove a diamond necklace, earrings and a watch from customs, valued at three million euros.

The gift, a gift from the Saudi authorities, was brought to the wife of the former president by one of his ministers,

who were confiscated at the São Paulo international airport when trying to introduce them into Brazil without declaring.

“I am being accused of a gift that I neither asked for nor received.

There is no illegality on my part ”, Bolsonaro told CNN Brazil, before his appearance at the CPAC.

Bolsonaro intervened while the public, who was far from filling the seats of the huge auditorium throughout the morning, anxiously awaited the arrival of the headliner, his friend Donald Trump, despite his habit of always giving the same speech.

His presence forced a change in the customs of those attending the congress, who were forced to pass, unlike in previous days, through the security arches of the secret services.

Eduardo Verástegui and Eduardo Bolsonaro, on Saturday at the CPAC.Al Drago (Bloomberg)

A couple of hours earlier, it had been the turn of Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the former Brazilian president, who shared a panel with the Mexican actor and producer Eduardo Verástegui, anti-abortion activist and founder of the Viva México Movement.

It was moderated by Mercedes Schapp, co-director of the event, which used to be a meeting to debate conservative ideas, but which has been kidnapped by Trumpism for years.

The conversation was titled:

(the Continent).

“Socialism is spreading like wildfire.

It was in the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, and now it is also in Mexico, Chile or Colombia”, said Verástegui.

Schapp asked Bolsonaro Jr. to define President Lula da Silva: “he is one of the most dangerous communists in the world, founder of the São Paulo Forum [meeting of the Latin American left].

There they meet and exchange ideas, ”he replied.

Both agreed that many of these ideas come from the United States, such as the "promotion of the

agenda " or "cultural Marxism."

It cannot be said that there was great expectation for the presence of Bolsonaro Sr. in the corridors of the CPAC, where one can find a good sample of the entire spectrum of Trumpism.

And that the former Brazilian president, one of the most revered leaders on conservative networks such as Fox News, who sent his star, Tucker Carlson, to Rio de Janeiro to interview him during the campaign, or by MAGA ideologues, such as Steve Bannon, played in home.

Pillow tycoon Mike Lindell, one of the loudest voices on the American far-right, now embarking on a crusade against "electoral crime," recalled it in a conversation with this newspaper.

In the same way that many of those attending the CPAC continue to believe, despite the evidence to the contrary, that Trump won the 2020 elections, for them, Bolsonaro follows the legitimate president of Brazil: “He was also robbed, he knows it, TRUE?

He is a great president.

He needs his voice to be heard.

Americans have an obligation to do so, so take note.

Look what happened there.

In the blink of an eye you can lose your country to the clutches of those electronic voting machines,” he added.

Lindell spoke after Bolsonaro.

Like many of those who attend the CPAC, the businessman wants Trump to be the Republican candidate in the elections, despite the fact that his influence in the party seems, for the first time in seven years, dwarfed by other figures, especially Ron's. De Santis, who has been the great absence in this meeting.

Ahead of Trump's grand advent, scheduled for later in the day, audiences heard from gun-loving congressmen (Lauren Boebert), representatives of the most extreme wing of Republicans (Elise Stefanik) and converted Democrats, such as Tulsi Gabbard, who lashed out at Hillary Clinton and the "cowardly Wokism" of her former party.

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