by Viviana Mazza
The links to Trump, the attacks of the left and the role of the former president’s third son, ideologue of the Bolsonarist movement
FROM OUR REPORTER
ORLANDO – He was photographed eating tasty KFC fried chicken, absently strolling down the aisles of a supermarket and posing in Bermuda shorts with fans between the palm trees. On December 30, two days before the end of his term as president (and his immunity), Jair Bolsonaro fled to Florida to a resort near Disneyworld and rented the mansion of his friend and mixed martial artist José Aldo.
As recently as yesterday, small groups of admirers arrived in procession – the very young Brazilian tourists wearing the same national team shirts worn by the rioters and bricklayer Marcus Paulino, who has lived in Massachusetts for 40 years, united in the belief that Bolsonaro was “our best “was President”. But Jair wasn’t there. Max, the janitor, said to everyone, “He went out to some meetings, a conference, this morning.”
The O Globo newspaper later described him as having been hospitalized “with severe abdominal pain” at AdventHealth Celebration Hospital, ten minutes from the villa. Maybe he’s really sick: in 2018 he was stabbed in the abdomen with a knife during the election campaign and had multiple surgeries. But those who are hurt by denial perish by denial: some of his detractors don’t believe it, arguing that he’s pretending because he’s under pressure.
refuge
Some US MPs from the Democratic Party will meet to press for the extradition of Bolsonaro (who may have entered the country on an A-1 visa as head of state). “The US should not harbor this dictator” who has “followed Trump’s manual to inspire terrorists in Brazil,” said Joaquin Castro of Texas, followed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters yesterday: “We have not received any official inquiries from the Brazilian government regarding Bolsonaro at the moment.” But if it does come through, he has promised to look into it seriously.
From Mexico City, at the summit of North American leaders, Biden, along with Lopez Obrador and Trudeau, condemned the unrest. The American left sees Florida, home of Donald Trump but above all fortress of governor and more formidable Republican White House candidate Ron DeSantis, as a den of subversives and sovereigns, so much so that humorist Frank Cerabino in the Palm Beach Post said he rest assured that Putin will be next. Coup attempts in Haiti and Venezuela are planned in the Sunshine State.
In Orlando last weekend, Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro’s former justice minister and then Brasilia’s security manager, was also fired on Sunday and charged with “crimes and omissions” for the revolt, according to Brazilian newspaper Estaao: he criticized the violence, adding that he was with his Family on vacation and hasn’t seen Jair.
The son «03»
There was always understanding between Trump and Bolsonaro when they were in power, but the link to the Trumpian clan has always been Eduardo, Jair’s third son, known as “03”, who just celebrated his 38th birthday with a cake in the shape has .38 caliber revolver. Eduardo was elected to Parliament in 2014 at the age of 30 and is believed to be the international envoy and ideologue of his father, who tried to appoint him ambassador to Washington but Parliament rebelled. “He’s someone else like Salvini, another young rising leader on the world stage,” Steve Bannon told the Courier Service in late December 2018.
The month before, Eduardo had been her guest at two dinners: one in Washington with about fifty people including Cardinal Mueller, the other in New York at the 21 Club. “In July I spent a whole day with him – Trump’s former strategist added -: informal consultation, I’m not getting paid. What I do is connect people». Eduardo was also in Washington on January 6, 2021, the day of the attack on Congress. In his office, he framed a message from Trump: “Eduardo, you’re great. A confirmation for your wonderful father will come soon» and he has been to Mar-a-Lago several times – the last time after the October 30 defeat. During that trip, Eduardo not only called Bannon (who claims to have coined the protesters’ #BrasilianSpring slogan and used his podcast to accuse Lula of cheating), but also met Jason Miller, former Trump spokesman and now administrator of the right social network Gettr.
On the same platform, Bannon, who was sentenced to 4 months in prison on January 6 for refusing to testify before the House of Representatives but without an appeal, defined the rioters in Brazil as “freedom fighters”. But he was already looking beyond Jair: “The movement has gone beyond the Bolsonaros, just as it has gone beyond Trump in the United States.”
January 9, 2023 (change January 9, 2023 | 23:37)
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