Democracies in crisis: Brazil just succeeded where America failed
In a historic ruling, the Supreme Court voted 4 to 1 to convict ex-President Jair Bolsonaro of conspiring against democracy and attempting a coup in the wake of his 2022 election defeat
On Thursday, the Brazilian Supreme Court did what the US Senate and federal courts tragically failed to do: bring a former president who assaulted democracy to justice.
In a historic ruling, the Supreme Court voted 4 to 1 to convict ex-President Jair Bolsonaro of conspiring against democracy and attempting a coup in the wake of his 2022 election defeat. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison. Barring a successful appeal, which is unlikely, Bolsonaro will become the first coup leader in Brazilian history to serve time in prison.
These developments draw a sharp contrast with the US, where President Trump, who also attempted to overturn an election, was sent not to prison but back to the White House. Trump, perhaps recognising the power of that contrast, called Bolsonaro’s prosecution a “witch hunt” and described his conviction as “a terrible thing. Very terrible.”
But Trump didn’t just criticize Brazil’s effort to defend its democracy; he also punished it. Citing the legal case against Bolsonaro before it was even decided, the Trump administration levied a whopping 50% tariff on most Brazilian exports and imposed sanctions on several government officials and Supreme Court justices. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case, was singled out for especially harsh sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act.
This was unprecedented. The administration targeted a Supreme Court justice in a democratic country with sanctions that had previously been reserved for notorious human rights violators such as Abdulaziz al-Hawsawi, implicated in the 2018 murder of a Washington Post contributor, Jamal Khashoggi, and Chen Quanguo, an architect of the Chinese government’s persecution of its Uyghur minority. Following the Bolsonaro verdict on Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio doubled down on Trump’s policy, declaring that the US would “respond accordingly to this witch hunt.” In short, the US was punishing Brazilians for doing something Americans should have done, but failed to: hold a former president accountable for attempting to overturn an election.
On Election Day, the Superior Electoral Tribunal took several steps to ensure the integrity of the vote, including ordering the dismantling of illegal checkpoints established by pro-Bolsonaro police and announcing the results immediately after the vote count concluded so that Bolsonaro would not have time to contest them. Crucially, in another striking departure from what happened in the US, prominent pro-Bolsonaro politicians, including top legislative leaders and right-wing governors, promptly recognised Lula’s victory.
After the events of Jan. 8, 2023, made it clear that Bolsonaro posed a threat to democracy, Brazilian courts moved aggressively to hold him to account — and prevent his return to power. In June 2023, the Superior Electoral Tribunal barred Bolsonaro from holding public office for eight years, closing the door on a 2026 presidential bid. In February 2025, Bolsonaro was indicted on charges of coup conspiracy, setting in motion the trial that led to Thursday’s conviction.
Although Bolsonaro’s supporters took to the streets to protest his prosecution, most of Brazil’s conservative politicians have largely accepted this process. Unlike the US, then, Brazil’s institutions acted vigorously and, so far, effectively to hold a former president accountable for trying to overturn an election. It is precisely the effectiveness of Brazil’s institutions that has placed the country in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. Having run out of options in Brazil, Bolsonaro turned to Trump. Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo lobbied the White House for months, seeking US intervention on his father’s behalf. Trump, who said Bolsonaro’s case looked “very much like” what “they tried to do with me,” was persuaded.
In attempting to bully Brazilian authorities into letting Bolsonaro escape justice, the Trump administration is abandoning nearly four decades of US policy toward Latin America. After the end of the Cold War, US administrations were fairly consistent in their defense of democracy in Latin America. The Biden administration’s efforts to block Bolsonaro’s coup attempt were a clear manifestation of that policy. Now, in a move that evokes some of America’s most anti-democratic Cold War interventions, the US is trying to subvert one of Latin America’s most important democracies.
With all its flaws, Brazilian democracy is healthier today than America’s. Keenly aware of their country’s authoritarian past, Brazil’s judicial and political authorities did not take democracy for granted. Their US counterparts, by contrast, fell down on the job. Rather than undermining Brazil’s effort to defend its democracy, Americans should learn from it.
The New York Times
