Banned from traveling, Brazil’s Bolsonaro sees off his wife heading to Trump’s inauguration
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro said Saturday that he is the victim of political persecution as he accompanied his wife to the airport in Brasilia to board a flight to attend U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday denied Bolsonaro’s request to temporarily restore his passport so that he could travel to the inauguration, determining that Bolsonaro currently holds no position that would allow him to represent Brazil at the event.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes also said in the ruling that the far-right leader did not adequately prove to the court that he had been invited.
Bolsonaro told journalists at the airport that he is “upset” and “still shocked” by the decision.
“Obviously it would have been really good for me to go. President Trump would have really liked it,” Bolsonaro said. “But I am facing enormous political persecution by one person,” he added, referring to de Moraes.
Some 20 supporters of the former president were at the airport, where Michelle Bolsonaro boarded her flight to the U.S.
“My husband is being persecuted, but those that God sends will be persecuted, we know this,” she told journalists before kissing her husband and going through the gates.
Bolsonaro is an outspoken admirer of Trump. Like him, the former Brazilian president also cast doubt on the electoral system in his country and refused to concede.
Bolsonaro, under several wide-ranging investigations including an attempt to stay in office despite his electoral defeat in 2022, had his passport seized by federal police last February because he was considered a flight risk. He denies the allegations against him.
Bolsonaro had requested permission to leave the country from Jan. 17 to 22 to attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday and a Hispanic inaugural ball.
When de Moraes asked Bolsonaro’s lawyers for evidence of his invitation on Saturday, they forwarded an invitation letter signed by inauguration committee co-chairs Steve Witkoff and Kelly Loeffler.
Still, de Moraes argued that Bolsonaro had not adequately proven that he was invited to the inauguration. In the ruling, de Moraes followed the recommendation of Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who said Wednesday that Bolsonaro’s private interest in the trip did not outweigh the public interest in prohibiting him from traveling abroad.
De Moraes said Bolsonaro remains a flight risk and added that the former president has advocated that his supporters, who face legal troubles in cases involving their political allegiance, should leave the country and seek asylum. Hundreds of Bolsonaro’s supporters involved in Jan. 8, 2023, riots in Brasilia have left Brazil to avoid prosecution.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was not officially invited, will not be present at Trump’s inauguration. The Brazilian ambassador to the U.S., Maria Luiza Viotti, will attend.
Trump has invited some global leaders, including China’s President Xi Jinping and Argentina’s President Javier Milei.