Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is in exile in Miami, living out his days at Trump’s hotel in the state, Mar-A-Lago, participated in an event organized by the conservative group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) there, titled “Power of the People.”
From the stage, the leader of the Brazilian right-wing expressed that “the economy marks the north of a country” and that he does not feel “optimistic” about the Brazilian economic future due to the socialist measures taken by Lula Da Silva in his first month in power.
Amid shouts such as “Lula, thief, go back to prison”, Bolsonaro reviewed his four years of government, especially his economic and social policies.
With irony, he said that having done all that, he still wonders how Lula, leader of the leftist Workers’ Party (PT), who is widely accused of having stolen the elections in complicity with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) by manipulating the source code of the electronic voting machines, won the elections.
TPUSA’s leader, conservative political commentator, and writer Charlie Kirk introduced Bolsonaro as a fighter against socialism and Marxism and a defender of freedom before an audience of about 400 people, composed of Floridians and many Brazilians traveling in the country.
Bolsonaro, 67, has been in the United States since December 30, when he had to leave Brazil before Lula took office due to threats from judges allied to the incoming leftist president that he would go to jail as soon as he lost his political privileges.
Although Bolsonaro intended to return in March, some of his former ministers were arrested immediately after his return to Brazil after going to Florida with the former president, so the leader of the Liberal Party (PL) remarked that he is awaiting a “change of visa” requested by his lawyer to stay longer in the United States.
During the event, there were no references to the protests that ended with the raid inside the headquarters of the three state powers in Brasilia last January 8, from which Bolsonaro timidly dissociated himself in a statement issued from Florida.
Smiling and with the optimism that always identifies him, Bolsonaro thanked the reception that his compatriots based in Florida gave him and assured that many of them were considering returning to Brazil if he was reelected but desisted from doing so.
However, during his speech, he remarked on multiple occasions that he did not plan to retire from political life and hinted that he would try again to return to the presidency in 4 years.
“We are not giving up on Brazil,” he assured. “We are recharging batteries; we are going to keep fighting.”
At the end of his speech, he answered questions from the organizer of the event. On the advance of the left in Latin America, he said that “unfortunately the false speeches, the promises of a paradise on earth, drag many people” and warned that liberty is something precious that “must be taken care of daily” and is “at risk”.
At this point, he spoke of “dear Venezuela” to point out that he was “saddened” that leftist Brazilian politicians have contributed to creating “hunger and poverty” in a country that has the largest oil reserves in the world. He assured that socialism and the left in general want to “equalize the people, but in misery”.
Lula will visit the United States next week, during which he will visit Joe Biden at the White House.
Among other issues, it is speculated that he will ask the Democratic president to deny Bolsonaro’s VISA so that he has to return to Brazil, where everything would be ready to arrest him.
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