On March 26th, 2025, Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil, was ordered by the Supreme Court to stand trial for attempting a coup d’etat after losing the 2022 presidential elections to Lula da Silva. The elections saw a high voter turnout, with 79.05% participation in the first round and 79.08% in the second round. The results were very close, as Silva narrowly defeated Bolsonaro by receiving 49.10% of the vote. This means the election was highly polarized and ultimately led to deep divisions and a contentious political environment in Brazil. As Bolsonaro supporters were more conservative and pro-capitalist, they were in support of Bolsonaro’s dedication to pro-business, free-market policies, including the privatization of industry and tax cuts for the rich. Additionally, he had strong support from military figures and a large portion of the upper class. Lula’s supporters were more socio-democratic and therefore showed high support for his dedication to social welfare programs, workers’ rights, and state-led economic growth. Therefore, he had the most support from Catholics, women, and young voters, or ultimately the people that were to be most affected by Bolsonaro’s policies. As a result, when Lula was elected, many of Bolsonaro’s supporters were unhappy and protested the outcome of the election in the following weeks by claiming electoral fraud. Brazilians in general largely support democracy and the “systematic effort to cast doubt on the electronic voting machines” used in Brazil, part of Bolsonaro’s efforts to undermine the election he lost (Al Jazeera). Referring to the actions of the Bolsonaro regime prior to the elections to delegitimize new electronic voting systems, multiple recordings were heard of Bolsonaro instructing ministers on pushing false claims of electoral fraud before the elections. Ultimately, this culminated and pushed protests to their boiling point and on January 8th, 2023, Bolsonaro supporters stormed the National Congress, Supreme Court, and the Presidential Palace in Brasilia, causing deliberate damage in an attempt to overthrow President Lula. According to Al Jazeera, “A week after Lula was sworn in, we saw thousands of supporters of President Bolsonaro storming buildings in Brazil…there were scenes of chaos in the capital…around 1,500 people were detained.” This event, similar to the attack on the Capital on January 6th, 2021 in the United States, served as an attack on democracy.  

Shortly after, police and military searched the properties of senators, ministers, and generals associated with Bolsonaro to find possible evidence for insurgency against the Brazilian democracy. This led to the arrest of Anderson Torres, the former Justice Minister of Brazil, who eventually testified that the coup draft found in his home was a discarded document. “The document outlined a plan to implement a state of defense (Estado de defesa) that would nullify the 2022 election results” (Wikipedia). The release of this document would cause lots of debate in Brazil, further pushing the government to investigate the extent of this coup plot. Operation Tempus Vertalis was then launched by the government, in which police conducted more raids on Bolsonaro’s aides, specifically Filipe Martins and Marcelo Câmara, and seized Bolsonaro’s passport.  By February 8th, 2024, Operation Tempus Vertalis, revealed the “Green and Dager Plot,” providing multiple pieces of evidence that pointed to Bolsonaro, multiple ministers, and generals of a plot to assassinate Lula, Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Then on November 19th, 2024, the federal police formally accused Bolsonaro and 36 others of planning a coup d’etat and assassination plot. However, Bolsonaro was not taken into the custody of the government. Until recently, he has remained untried by any legal system, but last week “The Supreme Court began reviewing charges against Bolsonaro and seven of his closest allies on Tuesday in a session that Bolsonaro voluntarily attended, sitting silently in the first row in an echo of his ally, U.S. President Donald Trump’s trial last year”(Al Jazeera). Many are hoping for a more positive outcome as the evidence stacks against him, in the defense of democracy and Brazilian people.