Brazil’s high court is set to rule this week on whether former President Bolsonaro conspired to hold on to power after losing the 2022 elections to his leftist rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The 70-year-old former army captain faces up to 43 years in prison if convicted in a case that has drawn the anger of his ally, U.S. President Donald Trump.
Bolsonaro, who has been under house arrest since August, was absent from the protests organized on Brazil’s Independence Day, from Brasilia to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. The primary gathering of Bolsonaro’s supporters began in the mid-afternoon on Sao Paulo’s Avenida Paulista, with demonstrators wearing the green and yellow colors of the national flag.
