Brazil: Congressional Inquiry Recommends Charges Vs. Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Over January 8 Riot

The Congress of Brazil has released a draft report regarding the January 8 riots, which was Brazil's equivalent of January 6. It accused ex-President Jair Bolsonaro of being the coup's mastermind and recommended that the infamous "Trump of the Tropics" be charged for attempting to stage a coup.

According to the Associated Press, the draft report was done by Sen. Eliziane Gama who is part of a congressional committee that investigated the uprising in Brasilia where Bolsonaro supporters broke into several government buildings, including Brazil's Congress, its Supreme Court, and its Presidential Palace.

Gama's report came after months of hearings regarding the matter. It proposed charges against Jair Bolsonaro, and these charges should include the violent overthrow of democratic rule, among other charges. Evidence of him leading the January 8 riot as he was seeking medical treatment in Florida came from "extensive documentation," including bank statements, phone records, and messages.

Since the January 8 coup happened, Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied any involvement, stating that he was in Florida at that time. However, testimonies, phone records, and messages from some of his top allies have suggested otherwise.

Charges Vs. Jair Bolsonaro Likely as January 8 Panel Filled With Lula Allies

The measure to charge Brazil's former president has not been adopted yet. However, a panel of lawmakers on the January 8 Brasilia riots is scheduled to vote on the inquiry report on Wednesday, and they are most likely adopting the measure. Should it be adopted, it would serve as a recommendation for prosecutors to charge Bolsonaro.

The measure is likely to pass because the panel, which is made up of 32 lawmakers, has a majority of its members allied with current president Lula, who was targeted by these rioters though he was out of Brasilia when the attempted coup happened.

As the Los Angeles Times pointed out, it was speculated that the January 8 riot was a coordinated effort to oust Lula from office, with the report agreeing with those claims. However, it went further as it named Bolsonaro as the actual ringleader behind all of it.

"Jair Bolsonaro and everyone around him knew about this," Gama said in the 1,100-page report. "They understood the violence and the scope of the demonstrations. They frequented the same groups on social media. They encouraged and fed rebellion and dissatisfaction. They deliberately added more fuel to the fire they themselves had lit."

Jair Bolsonaro Casted Doubt Into Election Results Long Before Losing to Lula

Known as the "Trump of the Tropics," Bolsonaro mimicked the infamous former US president and even took a page out of his playbook by repeatedly claiming that the elections would be stolen right before last year's all-important runoff vote, which Lula won.

As Fox 21 pointed out, Bolsonaro managed to make his supporters believe that the country's electronic voting system was prone to fraud. He even tried getting a hacker to infiltrate the country's electronic voting system to expose its alleged weaknesses, only for that said hacker to tell him that was not possible.

As the draft noted, the former Brazilian president "not only instrumentalized public bodies, institutions and agents, but also exploited the vulnerability and hope of thousands of people."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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