Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro rallies thousands in São Paulo, denies coup accusations

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is denying allegations he had any connection to riots that occurred  on the Jan. 8, 2023, in São Paulo, when thousands of his supporters stormed the country’s congress last year.

During a Sunday night speech to thousands of his supporters, the embattled former Brazilian chief executive said he was a victim of political persecution, and accusations he was part of plotting a coup to overthrow his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, were a “lie.”

The 68-year-old former president’s comments stem from the ongoing police investigation that is probing whether the former president incited a failed coup after he lost the 2022 election by a sliver of the national vote.

To that end, while addressing Sunday's rally in Brazil's largest city, Bolsonaro also called for amnesty for hundreds of his supporters who were tried and convicted for engaging in attacks on public buildings.

Instead, he suggested that it was time for his country to move forward and stop looking at the past while also using the opportunity to talk about the upcoming 2026 presidential elections.

His comments may seem paradoxical to some since he is currently, legally prohibited from running for eight years after being accused of undermining the Brazilian electoral system with allegations his successor’s victory was illegitimate.

Despite his legal woes, thousands of his supporters wearing the green and yellow colors of the Brazilian flag cheered him on, many of the saying it was an exercise in freedom of expression, insisting that the government has no right to persecute him for just “saying his opinion.”

Still, according to a report published by the British Broadcasting Company, the former president asked his supporters not to come with signs about the election or push slogans revisiting the election results to avoid giving authorities a reason to charge them with inciting riots or undermining the electoral system. 

In interviews with the BBC, some Brazilians said they felt it was their duty to speak their minds publicly to end an atmosphere that has resonated with a chilling effect on free speech.

“Brazilian politicians are afraid of people on the streets, it's the only thing that Brazilian politicians are afraid of,” 55-year-old military official Rogério Morgad said.

Alexandre França, a 53-year-old commercial director, told the BBC many people gathered for the rally because “we must express what we want for our country. Today everyone is afraid of being repressed. So I think we're here to show our faces. We want Brazil for everybody, freedom for everybody,” he said.

ADN reported earlier in February that Bolsonaro was forced to surrender his Brazilian passport to authorities, effectively land locking him in the large South American country, and stripping him of his ability to return the United States where he spent his days immediately after the October 2022 election.

Bolsonaro returned to his home country in March 2023, insisting that he had nothing to fear and all would be well. Despite those assurances to his base, the outgoing president is currently under investigation that he was a central conspirator in the riots that resulted in the storming and trashing of government buildings on Jan. 8, 2023, in the nation’s capital city.

Current President Lula da Silva has reportedly suggested to his advisers and law enforcement that he suspects the former president helped organize a military coup against him to undermine the electoral results.

So far, three of Bolsonaro’s associates have been charged, and his political party’s leader, Valdemar Costa Neto, was arrested on Feb. 8 for illegal possession of a firearm.

Bolsonaro’s party, the “The Liberal Party” was founded in 2006 as the result of multiple political organizations that formed a coalition. It previously supported the original government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but later became a base for Bolsonaro as the party shifted more to the right.