Bolsonaro ignores meeting with Marcos do Val in US speech – 02/03/2023 – Politics

In an atmosphere of fraternization, with loud music and a Brazilian audience, former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) participated this Friday (3) in an event with supporters in Miami (USA).

Held in the Crystal Ballroom of the Trump National Doral resort, the Power of the People event is an initiative of Turning Point USA and features Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative group and supporter of former US President Donald Trump. Charlie is investigated for involvement in the Capitol raid.

At this Friday’s event, the former Brazilian president did not mention the attacks by Bolsonarists on the headquarters of the three Powers on January 8, nor the denunciations of a coup plot made by Senator Marcos do Val (Podemos-ES).

Bolsonaro opened the lecture extolling the achievements of his government and, at the end of the speech, said he had a sense of accomplishment and the awareness that he did his best. He was applauded several times.

“We won’t give up on Brazil. I recharge my batteries at times like this”, he said amid the screams of “myth” coming from the audience.

When claiming to have faced the system and ended the government without denouncing corruption, he heard shouts of “Lula, thief, your place is in prison”. Last year, Bolsonaro adapted his speech on the subject. He used to be categorical about the lack of corruption in his government, but later said that there was “no endemic corruption” in his administration.

This Friday, the former president also attacked the current government Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). “Compare my ministers with the ministers they have now in Brazil,” he said.

“Brazil was doing very well. I can’t understand why they went left.”

After the speech, the president answered questions from host Charlie Kirk about the rise of socialism in Latin America. Once again, Bolsonaro praised the achievements of his government and said that the left was elected with the promise of steak and beer, but that the people will be “without a job, without steak and without beer”, attributing the unemployment figures for the month of December to the current management.

Finally, the former president criticized the performance of the Judiciary in Brazil and reinforced his anti-abortion and private property guidelines.

“It is the population that should give north to the country. We ran away from populism and gave means for the people to work”, he ended amidst smiles and applause from those present.

Bolsonaro did not want to speak to the press and left the place escorted by security.

The former president left Brazil on December 30, the day before the end of his term, and broke with democratic tradition by not handing over the presidential sash to Lula.

The former president applied for a tourist visa to stay longer in the United States. He arrived in the country on a diplomatic visa and had 30 days to change that status from the moment he left office.

The law firm hired by Bolsonaro requested a B2 visa for the former president. The document allows for up to six months to stay in the country, but does not authorize paid activities, which would disrupt the plan to finance the stay with lectures for businessmen.

The estimate is that the new visa will be approved within two months.

In a statement given this week after another event in the United States, the former president said that, because he had grandparents born in Italy, he is Italian and would face little bureaucracy to apply for citizenship in the country.

“By law, I am Italian. I have grandparents born in Italy, and your legislation says that I am Italian. Very little bureaucracy and I would have full citizenship,” he said when asked by a reporter for the newspaper Corriere della Sera if he had applied for citizenship. italian.

The revelation of a meeting between Bolsonaro, Senator Marcos do Val and then-federal deputy Daniel Silveira (PTB-RJ) is yet another ingredient in the investigations that investigate the former president’s participation in the coup plan that ended in attacks on STF buildings. , Planalto and Congress on January 8.

The case adds to Bolsonaro’s historic coup plot and the draft with a coup plan found by the Federal Police at the home of former minister Anderson Torres last month.

The Federal Police operates in four lines of investigation to investigate all the facts and people related to the coup attacks and vandalism carried out by Bolsonaro supporters.

The former president, former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres and authorities who acted or omitted during the coup attempt are in the sights of these investigations.

In the case of Bolsonaro, the PF targets the intellectual authors of the attacks, and Marcos do Val’s testimony may strengthen suspicions that the former president’s repeated coup attempts contributed to the attacks.