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Brazil's former president faces charges over alleged coup plot

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the National Congress building in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.
Eraldo Peres
/
AP
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the National Congress building in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.

RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazil's Attorney General has charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with allegedly attempting to overturn the country's 2022 election.

The former far-right president narrowly lost his re-election bid to current leader, leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. A week after Lula took office in 2023, supporters of Bolsonaro stormed the capital Brasilia, ransacking government offices and the Supreme Court building on January 8th.

Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet unveiled the charges against the former populist President and a number of his close allies on Tuesday evening. Gonet accused the former president of leading a "criminal organisation", that included a plan to poison his successor and a Supreme Court judge.

The charges come just three months after a 884 page police report federal police report accused the former president of an attempt to "violently dismantle the constitutional state".

Bolsonaro, who faces a plethora of other legal charges, has already been barred from running for President again until 2030, after he made unfounded claims about Brazil's voting system ahead of the 2022 election.

The former President could face prison if convicted. Bolsonaro, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has repeatedly denied breaking any laws and claims he's the victim of a political witch hunt. Speaking to reporters in the capital Brasilia he said he had "no concerns about the accusations, zero."

It's now up to the Brazil's Supreme Court to decide whether Bolsonaro will be arrested and put on trial.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Carrie Kahn is NPR's International Correspondent based in Mexico City, Mexico. She covers Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Kahn's reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning news programs including All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, and on NPR.org.

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The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

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Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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