“A fantastic country”, is how Jair Bolsonaro spoke of Brazil, when meeting with Brazilians in Boca Raton, Florida. The ex-president has been in the United States since the end of December 2022: he had left Brazil a few days before the official end of his mandate. For the first time, on Saturday February 11, he spoke about his return to the country, saying he “intends to return to Brazil in the coming weeks”, according to a video broadcast by the CNN Brasil channel.
“We know that there, really, it’s a fantastic country. I also want to go back to Brazil. I intend to return to Brazil in the coming weeks,” the former far-right leader said.
“We had corruption-free governance. We worked with heart, with honesty. No measure of retaliation, or even persecution, is justified,” he also said, as he is being investigated by his country’s Supreme Court to determine his role in the assault on national institutions in Brasilia on January 8 led by bolsonarists.
Six hours after the assaults, Mr. Bolsonaro had finally condemned lip service “the depredations and invasions of public buildings”, while denying any responsibility. His leftist successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said he was “certain” on February 2 that the ex-president had “prepared the coup”.
“We have to face the problems,” Jair Bolsonaro also told his supporters on Saturday evening. “Sometimes we have to take risks, it’s worth it. You can be sure that the majority of the Brazilian people are with us. »
The ex-army captain (67) fled to the United States on December 30, just before Lula’s inauguration on January 1, refusing, as tradition dictates, to hand over the sash presidential election to his successor, whose victory he won on the wire last October he never digested.
Mr. Bolsonaro kept a low profile during his first few weeks in Florida, his only known activities consisting of a trip to the supermarket and another to eat fried chicken alone at a KFC restaurant. Then he came out of his reserve by delivering, before Saturday evening, two speeches to the cheers of loyal supporters.
On January 10, he first talked about his return, telling CNN Brasil that he was originally scheduled to stay “until the end” of January, but that he “intends to return sooner”. . He applied at the end of January for a six-month visa to stay in the United States, according to his lawyer.
