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Former President Jair Bolsonaro could face criminal charges over accusations that he was involved in plans to stage a coup after losing the 2022 elections.
Nov. 21, 2024Updated 3:23 p.m. ET
The Brazilian authorities announced on Thursday that they were recommending criminal charges against former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro over his role in a broad plot to cling to power after he lost the 2022 presidential election.
The accusations sharply escalate Mr. Bolsonaro’s legal troubles and highlight the extent of what the authorities have called an organized attempt to subvert Brazil’s democracy. Mr. Bolsonaro narrowly lost to the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist, but claimed the election had been fraudulent.
Brazil’s federal police urged prosecutors to charge Mr. Bolsonaro and three dozen others, including members of his inner circle, for the crimes of “violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état and criminal organization.”.
The police did not provide any specifics about Mr. Bolsonaro’s actions that led to their recommendations.
The announcement comes two days after four members of an elite military unit, including a former top aide to Mr. Bolsonaro, were arrested and accused of planning to Mr. Lula shortly before he took office in January 2023.
The police have already recommended criminal charges against Mr. Bolsonaro in two separate cases: an effort to falsify his Covid-19 vaccination records and a plot to embezzle jewelry that he received as gifts from foreign leaders while in office.
