Did Brazil’s Bolsonaro choose the wrong country for a political vacation?

The right-wing former president left for the US as his left-wing successor was about to be sworn in, but will he be welcome?

Just as the US was preparing for the second anniversary of its January 6 insurrection, ex-Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro went to Florida following election fallout in his own country.

Of all the places in the world Jair Bolsonaro could have fled to following his tumultuous defeat in a run-off election against his left-wing opponent, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the United States may have been the least expected. After all, here is a country that most wanted men – think Julian Assange and Edward Snowden – escape from, not to. Meanwhile, memories of its own so-called ‘insurrection’ are still fresh in the minds of many Americans, some of whom are now holding the slippery reins of power.

On January 6, 2021, following the defeat of then-US President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a throng of his supporters descended upon the Capitol Building in Washington, DC in the belief that the election had been “stolen.” A similar script played out this week in Brasilia, the Brazilian capital, as Bolsonaro supporters ransacked Congress and the Supreme Court, and surrounded the presidential palace in yet another chink in the armor of computer-controlled elections.

The violence, which the former right-wing president formally condemned, forced Lula to call for a state of emergency in the capital until January 31. By comparison, although Trump quickly committed himself to an orderly transition of power, Bolsonaro didn’t stick around to hand over the ceremonial presidential sash to Lula da Silva at the inauguration, a bold decision that the new Brazilian leader will not soon forget or forgive.  

Many of Brasília’s streets sealed off tonight after an extraordinary day of political violence that will go down in the very worst pages of Brazilian history pic.twitter.com/F2Cj079w4h

— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) January 9, 2023

Rather than stepping aside, the former Brazilian incumbent fled to the Republican stronghold of Florida, which was certainly no accident considering that the Sunshine State is home to both Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. This may prove invaluable should Lula make an extradition request for Bolsonaro. It would probably come as no surprise that the Democrats, a party that never misses a chance to engage in political theater, are already doing exactly that.

“Bolsonaro was an authoritarian leader,” Joaquin Castro, a Democratic lawmaker from Texas, told CNN anchor Jim Acosta, adding that the far-right president “basically used the [Donald] Trump playbook to inspire domestic terrorists to try to take over the government.

“Right now he is in Florida, actually very close to Donald Trump, he should be extradited to Brazil,” continued Castro, who is also a member of the House foreign affairs committee.

Nearly 2 years to the day the US Capitol was attacked by fascists, we see fascist movements abroad attempt to do the same in Brazil.

We must stand in solidarity with @LulaOficial’s democratically elected government.