The coup that never happened

The trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro, which began on Thursday, June 22, and is set to resume on Tuesday, June 27, leads to a basic question: what did he do wrong or illegal to justify the Supreme Election Control Commission (TSE) revoking his political rights and preventing 140 million Brazilian voters from voting for him in the next elections? The answer is quite simple: nothing. Nothing at all? Yes, exactly that: nothing at all. Throughout this entire ordeal, Bolsonaro has never faced a legitimate judicial process, as it is done in any respectable democracy — where the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty by the prosecutor, and the evidence must have minimally objective relation to the facts. He was condemned to be “ineligible” even before the trial had begun; he was not taken to a court of justice but to a firing squad. There was never the slightest intention to apply the law or act impartially. His case has nothing to do with the current legislation in force in Brazil or his constitutional rights. It has everything to do with politics, and only politics — it is simply the execution, by those in power, of an enemy deemed as inconvenient. Bolsonaro is a right-winger, which, today, in Brazil, is considered illegal by the highest instance of the Brazilian Judiciary, especially when, according to the TSE’s own calculations, the former right-wing president currently has the of almost 50% of voters, that is, the same percentage he had in the last elections.

What we have here is a case which American traditionalists would call a “kangaroo court” — at least until President Joe Biden’s election and the Democrats’ automatic alignment with what they perceive as the global left. In practical , it is the trial and conviction of someone who a group of individuals in power have decided is guilty of something, without evidence or due process. The Brazilian Constitution does not state anywhere that citizens are forbidden to be right-wingers or against the “L” System — but that is all that matters to the Supreme Court (STF) and its electoral branch. They claim otherwise, of course, even though the chief justice of the group publicly states that it is a crime to be a “far-right radical” in Brazil, or any other made-up classification[LMM1]  so similar that nobody can tell the difference. In the eyes of the TSE, the former president violated electoral law while in office — essentially for “acting against democracy,” something that, to begin with, no one has been able to define objectively or even with elementary logic. But if there is no political persecution, it would be indispensable to present tangible evidence of the offenses Bolsonaro allegedly committed, and there is no evidence that holds up.

Based on what can be gathered from the alarming mishmash of accusations imposed on the public by the rapporteur of the process, the former president is guilty of abusing his position with the aim of winning the election or staging a coup d’état — something unfathomable, since he lost the election and did not stage any coup. The basis of the accusation is a meeting that Bolsonaro had with ambassadors from foreign nations during the campaign, in which he expressed concerns about the integrity of the electoral system and made harsh remarks about some Supreme Court justices. The presentation was undoubtedly one of the worst ideas the former president had throughout his government — a mental tumult without a guiding thread, without order, without clarity, sometimes incoherent, with repetitions and sections where nothing could be understood. It was mostly futile. The ambassadors were not impressed in the slightest — to the extent that none of their governments took the accusations seriously or objected to the TSE’s electronic voting machines or the official election results. Therefore, his poor presentation was just that — a poor presentation, not a crime. Where does it say in the Constitution or in any Brazilian law, that citizens are forbidden to express concerns about the proper functioning of the voting system and vote counting? Nowhere. In fact, millions of Brazilians believe the same. So, what was the problem?

There would have been a problem if Bolsonaro had, somehow, used the speech he gave to the ambassadors during his rally to tamper with the election outcome, to reject the vote count presented by the TSE, or to forcefully remain in power. But he did none of that. His interference with the outcome was nonexistent; he abided by all orders he received from the Electoral Justice during the campaign, and above all, he left office when his mandate ended. He has been out of the presidency for six months. He did nothing concrete to stay in power or challenge the numbers announced by the TSE. What kind of “coup” is this, where the coup plotter, instead of using his authority as the President of the Republic and Commander-in-Chief of t Staff of the Armed Forces to remain in government, simply goes home in the end of the day? As a matter of fact, Bolsonaro didn’t even attempt to invoke the much-discussed “Article 142” of the Constitution, he did not order a military intervention, and he did not declare a “state of emergency” or anything of the sort. He is primarily accused by Lula and the media of having “coup plans”— Lula even claimed that it is “proven” that the former president is guilty of all accusations. The truth is that there are just documents seized from a collaborator of Bolsonaro discussing the possibility of taking measures allowed by the Federal Constitution. Since when are citizensprohibited from studying the Constitution — just studying but not taking any action?

The former president has also been condemned, without the slightest possibility of appeal or defense, for the acts of vandalism committed against the buildings of the Square of the Three Powers on January 8. It is part of his overall criminal conduct, according to the official verdict. Once again, there is not the faintest piece of evidence linking him to the attacks—on the contrary, there is a massive lack of evidence. It’s simple. Lula and his government, who accuse Bolsonaro of “commanding” the attacks in Brasília, have a perfect opportunity to prove their claims in the t Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry (MI) installed by Congress to investigate the episode. But they never wanted any investigation at all. Firstly, they opposed tooth and nail the opening of the MI. Then, when they couldn’t stop it, they took control of the committee—and ever since, all they have done is sabotaging the investigation. Why would they do that if they are victims of an attempted coup, and Bolsonaro is the one responsible for it? There is nothing better, in this case, than to accurately look into the facts. But they don’t want to uncover the facts—they actually want to conceal what happened, as evidenced by their refusal to request information, obtain physical evidence, and summon witnesses. It remains a complete mystery, in any case, how the coup plotters could carry out their coup without a single weapon, without command, without a plan, without military , without absolutely anything but beach chairs and Brazilian flags. It just doesn’t add up. Bolsonaro is accused, in a general sense, of maintaining an unspecified “anti-democratic” attitude during his government. This is ultimately considered his greatest fault. He may not have staged a coup, but he had the “intention” to do so — or he wanted to, thought about it, gave the impression that he would, and so on. Again, the problem with this is the lack of evidence or even reasonable arguments in these accusations. Throughout his four years as president, Bolsonaro never violated a single law in force in Brazil. He did not refuse to comply with any orders he received from the Judiciary, and he received tons of orders. He did not disobey Congress’ decisions. He did not censor a single word of criticism—and he was the president who faced the most media criticism in the history of the country. He did not persecute his opponents. He did not impose fines of R$1 million per day or per hour. He did not repress any demonstration on the streets or any other form of protest from the opposition. He did not file lawsuits against anyone. He did not remove anyone from their positions. He did not arrest anyone. So, why is he accused of being anti-democratic? The facts show the opposite. The problem is that the justices seem to possess inherited and transmissible antibodies that prevent the reality of the facts from spoiling the political-ideological architecture of their decisions. It is needless to say, at this point, that the rapporteur of the TSE process is the same justice whom Lula publicly showered with affectionate pats on the face — and who, during Lula’s inauguration ceremony, said to Justice Alexandre de Moraes, “mission received, mission accomplished.” It is also clear that he and his superiors at the Supreme Court staged a populist spectacle to engage in political propaganda during the trial. They even invited to the show the international press, which naturally holds the same negative opinion of Bolsonaro as the majority of the Brazilian press—that he is a horror. In the end, everyone is convinced that the “institutions” worked, justice was served, TV Globo’s actors saved democracy, the villains were punished, and love triumphed—everyone but the voters of this country.