RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, who could face trial for allegedly masterminding an attempted coup, is hoping for a major show of support at a rally in Rio de Janeiro Sunday.
Bolsonaro, 69, has called for what he claims could be a million of his supporters to demonstrate on Rio’s famed Copacabana beach in a show of strength while he plans a comeback in elections next year.
“Let’s send a message to Brazil and the world,“ the 69-year-old, who led Brazil from 2019 to 2023, said in a video posted on social media.
The rally’s stated purpose is to demand amnesty for hundreds convicted over the January 8, 2023 riots in the capital Brasilia, when Bolsonaro backers stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court.
The demonstrators demanded that the military oust leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who had defeated arch-rival Bolsonaro in the October 2022 elections and had been sworn in just a week earlier.
The violent rampage evoked the storming of the US Capitol building in Washington by supporters of Donald Trump — a Bolsonaro ally — almost exactly two years earlier.
Bolsonaro condemned the “pillaging and invasions”, which happened when he was abroad in the United States, but prosecutors believe the riots were part of a criminal plot hatched by the then-former president to overthrow Lula and return to power.
On March 25, Brazil’s Supreme Court will consider whether there is sufficient evidence to try Bolsonaro, who risks a prison term of more than 40 years.
‘Send a message’
Dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics,“ Bolsonaro — like his political muse — claims to be the victim of political persecution aimed at excluding him from seeking a second term in 2026 presidential elections.
He has been declared ineligible to hold public office until 2030 for having made unsubstantiated claims of fraud in Brazil’s electronic voting system, but is hoping to have the ban overturned to make a Trump-like comeback.
Independent political analyst Andre Rosa told AFP the real purpose of calling for protests Sunday was so Bolsonaro can “send a message to his competitors on the right… and reaffirm his intention to be a candidate in 2026.”
“For now, I am a candidate,“ Bolsonaro told journalists in Brasilia this week.
There are also continuity concerns in Lula’s camp, with worry over the 79-year-old president’s health and his popularity dragged down by consumer inflation.
Sunday’s rally is due to get underway at 10:00 am (1300 GMT).
A similar pro-Bolsonaro demonstration in Sao Paulo last February drew hundreds of thousands of people, but two other rallies called in April and September got less traction.
