Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s stay in Florida, as his supporters ransacked emblematic official places in Brasilia, casts the United States in a relatively embarrassing light, notably evoking previous receptions of controversial Latin American leaders.
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For decades, Florida in the southeastern United States served as the exile residence of former strongmen, autocrats, and more recently became the adopted state of Donald Trump.
Among them: Gerardo Machado, nicknamed the “Tropical Mussolini” when he was at the head of Cuba almost a century ago, but also the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who took refuge in 1979 in a villa in Miami after being overthrown, but whose asylum application was rejected.
In scenes evoking those of the assault on the Washington Capitol on January 6, 2021, supporters of Jair Bolsonaro ransacked the Presidential Palace, Congress and the Supreme Court in Brasilia on Sunday.
They called, in vain, the military to intervene against Lula, whose recent inauguration as president had been shunned by his predecessor.
“Unwavering Support”
If Biden offered his “unwavering support” for Brazilian democracy in an appeal to Lula, some American elected officials want Washington to go further and expel Jair Bolsonaro from the United States.
“Domestic terrorists and fascists must not be allowed to use the Trump model to undermine democracy,” Democratic lawmaker Joaquin Castro wrote on Twitter. “Bolsonaro must not have the shelter offered in Florida, where he is hiding so as not to be held accountable for his crimes,” he added.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States had not received a request from Brazil about Jair Bolsonaro, but would treat such a request “seriously”.
For Valentina Sader, a manager at the Latin America Center of the Atlantic Council think tank, “embarrassment is normal, in a way.” “What happened in Brazil pushed the United States into the debate, because President Bolsonaro was here,” explains the researcher.
Bolsonaro, who condemned on Twitter the “depredations and invasions of public buildings”, said in an interview with CNN Brazil that he initially intended to return to the country at the end of the month, but would eventually return before that, for health reasons.
The former far-right president was indeed hospitalized on Sunday in Florida for an intestinal “adhesion”, another consequence of the stabbing attack he suffered in September 2018. He was released Tuesday evening.
Steve Bannon and Eduardo Bolsonaro
But if he does not intend to drag on in Florida, Mr. Bolsonaro – sometimes nicknamed the “Trump of the Tropics” – did not fail to meet many of his supporters in this American state where nearly a quarter of Brazilians reside. in the USA.
No meeting between MM. Bolsonaro and Trump hasn’t been announced since the first arrived in Florida, but his son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, has remained close to Steve Bannon.
Donald Trump’s former éminence grise has called for an investigation into Brazil’s electronic voting system, which has long been recognized globally for its effectiveness.
Sentenced in October to four months in prison for refusing to cooperate with the parliamentary inquiry into the assault on the Capitol, this architect of Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 promotes his nationalist ideology abroad, in particular to far-right European parties.
For Thomas Carothers, an expert on democracy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Donald Trump has elevated electoral denial to the rank of an international movement.
And Brazil is paying the price, according to him, because of the strong parallels that can be drawn with the United States. Beyond the Trump-Bolsonaro alliance, Brazil has seen religion play an increasing role in politics, and a chasm has widened further between urban and rural areas.
But for Thomas Carothers, other countries are to be watched, including Turkey and Mexico, where President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has called for a major reform of the electoral system.
Electoral denial “isn’t really a new idea”, he says.
“Just Trump put it forward as a strategy, and showed the world that even in the United States, you can question the elections,” said Thomas Carothers.