Brazil: New police investigation probes Bolsonaro for 'harassing' whale, illuminating tension with Lula da Silva

Brazilian authorities are investigating former President Jair Bolsonaro for a close encounter he shared with a humpback whale last year, according to local media reports.

The investigation is probing whether the embattled former president “harassed” the large mammal while he was riding a wave runner off Sao Paulo’s coast last year.

The former military officer turned conservative politician turned himself in at Sao Paulo federal police headquarters on Tuesday to meet with police officers to answer to the latest string of charges for which he is being investigated.

The former president is also under investigation by Brazilian authorities, as some in the current presidential administration suspect he tried to organize a coup against his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. ADN recently reported Bolsonaro was forced to surrender his passport and has been instructed not to leave the South American country.

Reports indicate the former president appeared with his attorney and a former political adviser who was with him at the time the purported incident occurred.

Federal prosecutors are probing the case as the result of a June 2023 social media video that arose online in which a man who resembles Bolsonaro rode a wave runner close to a whale. The video was purportedly taken by the driver of the personal watercraft.

Under Brazilian maritime law, watercraft must remain at least 100 meters from whales and other large aquatic mammals. It is unlawful to attempt to get close to such cetaceans, and those who do risk facing from two to five years in prison and a fine.  

The video sparked concerns of Brazilian police because the videographer appears only 15 meters from the animal, according to prosecutors probing the case. 

According to legal experts, if prosecutors can prove that Bolsonaro intentionally approached the large sea mammal, he will only face a fine. According to Brazilian news site G1, another area politician was recently fined a little more than $500 for a similar act.

Since Bolsonaro left power, many members of his Liberal Party have characterized his successor’s treatment use of law enforcement to investigate him as a form of political persecution.

There are also allegations the current Brazilian government is using the law to harass his family.

Last year, police questioned Bolsonaro’s wife and close aides for purportedly trying to illegally transport $3 million in luxury watches back into the country that investigators suspect the former president received as gifts from Saudi Arabia.

Police are also probing whether Bolsonaro used Brazil’s intelligence apparatus to spy on Lula’s supporters during his term between 2018-2022.

Last week, just before the recent whale related interrogation, Bolsonaro was questioned in of Brasilia by investigators who continue to probe whether he attempted to orchestrate a coup against his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The October 2022 general election between Bolsonaro, the conservative head of the Liberal Party, and Lula da Silva, the leader of the  leftist Worker’s Party, was one of the closest Brazil ever had, and the two men have no shortage of bad blood between them.

Lula barely won with an estimated 50.9% of the electorate and 60 million votes while Bolsonaro captured 49.1% of the electorate with more than 58 million votes.

The allegations that Bolsonaro may have planned a “coup” stem from a decree that was purportedly drafted by some of the former president’s military advisers and former ministers that would have ostensibly declared Lula’s 2022 electoral victory a result of fraud.

Investigators are probing whether the decree would have also effectively shut down the country’s judicial branch by ordering the arrest of a Supreme Court justice while holding a revote of the 2022 election.

Whatever the case, the decree was never enacted, and the purported plot was not initiated.

Still, a panel of judges has concluded that the former president undermined his nation’s electronic voting system by raising doubts in the public sphere, and they have since restricted him from running for office again until 2030.

Bolsonaro has insisted he did nothing illegal to divert Brazil’s democratic process.

This week, ADN reported that Bolsonaro delivered a Sunday night speech to thousands of his supporters, insisting he was a victim of political persecution, and that allegations he was part of a coup to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, were a “lie.”

During his speech, Bolsonaro also called for amnesty for those of his supporters who were convicted for engaging in attacks on public buildings, and said it was time for his country to move forward.

In a strong showing of support, thousands of the former president’s supporters cheered him on, adorned in the green and yellow colors of the Brazilian flag.

Some of those interviewed by the media said his address to Brazil’s largest city was an exercise in freedom of expression, insisting that the government has no right to persecute him for just “saying his opinion.”