f{"id":38387,"date":"2024-12-22T22:21:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T06:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38387"},"modified":"2024-12-22T22:21:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T06:21:47","slug":"what-a-turn-of-events-it-has-been-for-brazil-the-u-s-and-their-unserious-presidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/22\/what-a-turn-of-events-it-has-been-for-brazil-the-u-s-and-their-unserious-presidents\/","title":{"rendered":"What a turn of events it has been for Brazil, the U.S. and their unserious presidents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro speaks to the press after arriving at the airport in Brasilia, Brazil, on Nov. 25. Bolsonaro faces charges of attempting a coup.Ton Molina\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>OPINION<\/a>\/\/OPEN FORUM<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Jack Epstein<\/a>,Wire Editor Dec 20, 2024 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In January, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. While Trump takes his oath of office, Jair Bolsonaro<\/a>, Brazil\u2019s former president \u2014 known as the \u201cTrump of the Tropics\u201d \u2014 will face charges remarkably like those recently dropped against America\u2019s president-elect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news reminded me of a national insult I often heard repeated in the nine years I lived in Brazil as a Peace Corps volunteer, an English teacher and a journalist. On a 1964 visit to Brazil, French President Charles De Gaulle<\/a> reportedly said: \u201cThis is not a serious country.\u201d Brazilians, unsurprisingly, were wounded by the comment but also took it as a prompt for self-reflection. They told me I was fortunate to live in a country where things \u201cwork\u201d and laws are respected. Their complaints typically centered around rich and politically powerful people acting with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I recall those conversations today, I ask myself: Which, now, is the more \u201cserious\u201d country?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro, Brazil\u2019s far-right populist president elected in 2018, lost a close race in 2022 against current President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/a>, a populist former president popularly known as \u201cLula.\u201d Taking a page from Trump\u2019s playbook, Bolsonaro falsely claimed to have won the election and refused to concede defeat. In another mirror image of what happened in the U.S., on Jan. 8, 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro\u2019s supporters tried to subvert the nation\u2019s democracy by attacking Brazil\u2019s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices. More than 2,000 were arrested after causing nearly $3 million in damage. More than 80 protesters and police were injured. The rioters had hoped the army would intervene, allowing Bolsonaro to govern by military edict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court is overseeing most of the investigations against Bolsonaro. Judges have barred him from running for office until 2030 over his false claim that he lost in a rigged election. On Nov. 21 after a two-year investigation, federal police accused Bolsonaro and dozens of his aides of attempting a coup to keep him in office. The police also accused a top Bolsonaro aide of a plan printed out in the presidential offices to assassinate da Silva. On top of all this, federal police have recommended criminal charges against Bolsonaro for embezzling jewelry worth $3.2 million that he received as gifts from Saudi Arabia and for falsifying his COVID vaccination records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Trump, Bolsonaro has called these charges political persecution. And, as with Trump, his victim narrative has not turned off his base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s contrast Brazil with how similar events have played out up north. In July, the U.S. Supreme Court \u2014 which includes three justices appointed by Trump \u2014 ruled that presidents have broad immunity for actions taken while in office. While Trump had faced election-related charges in Georgia and Washington, D.C., none had led to a trial. And on Nov. 25, Jack Smith, the U.S. Justice Department\u2019s special counsel, asked two federal courts to dismiss criminal cases against Trump \u2014 plotting to overturn the 2020 election and keeping highly classified documents. In doing so, Smith acknowledged the U.S. Justice Department policy saying that it is unconstitutional to prosecute a sitting president. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of four investigations for potential felonies, Trump\u2019s only trial occurred in a New York state court, where a Manhattan jury in May convicted him of 34 felonies in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial. The judge in that case has postponed sentencing indefinitely as Trump\u2019s lawyers work to have the case thrown out over the Supreme Court\u2019s decision on presidential immunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Brazil, federal prosecutors have yet to decide whether to follow recommendations by the federal police to arrest Bolsonaro and put him on trial. A decision is expected sometime next year. He could face years in jail. The crimes of attempted coup, attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law and criminal organization add up to 30 years in prison, while prosecutors could tack on another 17 years over the Saudi jewelry case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of all the differences between Brazil and the U.S., however, the one that really stands out is while Bolsonaro remains a political outcast mired in legal woes and barred from leaving the country, Trump is busy selecting his cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Epstein was the Chronicle\u2019s foreign service and nation\/world wire editor from 2000 to 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 20, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Epstein<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WIRE EDITOR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2000-2009, Jack Epstein headed the San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s foreign service, overseeing coverage by freelancers and stringers from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Before joining the Chronicle, he spent many years in Latin America and has a B.A. in Latin American Studies from UCLA.He began his journalism career in 1980 freelancing from Central and South America. Jack had worked previously for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil and Panama and traveled throughout the region, producing the 1977 travel guide, \u201cAlong the Gringo Trail.\u201dIn 1982 he received a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism to research the links between Central America\u2019s Miskito Indians and the CIA, spending four months in Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica, producing a series of articles for Pacific News Service and the National Catholic Reporter.From 1983 to 1988 Jack freelanced in the San Francisco area, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dallas Morning News California Lawyer, and California Business magazine.In 1989 he moved to Mexico City to teach journalism at the Colegio Americano and to freelance from Mexico and Central America.Four years later he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he worked primarily for the Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle and TIME magazine.Jack returned to California in 2000 and joined the Chronicle. He is currently the paper\u2019s foreign\/national wire editor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro speaks to the press after arriving at the airport in Brasilia, Brazil, on Nov. 25. Bolsonaro faces charges of attempting a coup.Ton Molina\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images OPINION\/\/OPEN FORUM By\u00a0Jack Epstein,Wire Editor Dec 20, 2024 (SFChronicle.com) In January, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}