The Brazilian justice system did not waver. After a rigorous trial, former president Jair Bolsonaro was found guilty on Thursday, September 11, of attempting a coup d'état following his defeat to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the October 2022 presidential election. The severity of the charges justified the harsh sentence handed down – 27 years and three months in prison – by the Supreme Federal Court, Brazil's highest, which was responsible for judging the former president. This sentence could be adjusted given the poor health of the 70-year-old convict.
This conviction remains exemplary, regardless of the efforts by Bolsonaro's supporters to push for an amnesty law. It serves as a stark reminder of a fundamental tenet: Democracy rests on the verdict of the ballot box, not on the destruction of institutions. For a country ruled by the arbitrariness and brutality of a military dictatorship until 1985, this judgment is evidence of newfound maturity, which is further underscored by the presence among those convicted of six high-ranking officers, including three generals.
It is all the more regrettable, then, that this judgment was immediately met with scathing criticism from the United States, voiced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio, himself the son of Cuban exiles, ought to discern the difference between a putschist and a democrat. Rubio did not content himself with scandalously denouncing a "witch hunt" and "political persecutions," as the far right systematically does in response to court decisions, including in France.
He also raised the threat of further reprisals, even as Brazil is already facing increased tariffs imposed by Donald Trump in violation of international rules, in an attempt to pressure judges in Brasilia. The consequences of that approach are now clear. If Washington sought to drive a major Latin American nation into Beijing's orbit, it could hardly do better.
The intensity of this American interference is all the more striking given that Brazil succeeded where the self-proclaimed beacon of the free world so dismally failed. Donald Trump, who orchestrated a vehement campaign challenging the 2020 US presidential election results – despite a complete lack of evidence of fraud – relied on the servility of the Republican Party and the indulgence of Supreme Court justices he had appointed to evade any prosecution. He then compounded injustice by pardoning those responsible for the unprecedented assault on American democracy in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Yet, Brazil's democratic victory is not complete. "History teaches us that impunity, inaction and cowardice do not lead to appeasement," rightly asserted Alexandre de Moraes, the trial's rapporteur. The extreme political polarization that took root in the United States, and has since spread to Brazil, means that the September 11 judgment has not yet closed a dark chapter in the nation's history. Rather, it has rekindled deep divisions, despite the lamentable environmental and health record of Bolsonaro's time in office. The challenge of reconciliation remains ahead.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.