Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday protested against “shameless” lawmakers seeking an amnesty that could benefit former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, while pushing to shield themselves from criminal charges.
Bolsonaro was sentenced earlier this month to 27 years in jail for plotting a coup and within days, the conservative-majority Brazilian Congress had fast-tracked an amnesty bill that could include the far-right leader.
“No amnesty,” crowds roared in dozens of Brazilian cities, holding up signs and wearing stickers reading: “shameless Congress.”
Photo: AP
Protesters were also outraged by what they dubbed the “banditry bill” passed last week. The law would require the Brazilian Congress to vote by secret ballot to give the go-ahead for one its own to be charged or arrested.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva celebrated the protests, writing on Instagram: “I stand with the Brazilian people. Today’s demonstrations show that the population does not want impunity or amnesty.”
Tens of thousands attended a “musical protest” on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach in the sweltering heat.
“This protection they seek is to camouflage corruption, impunity,” said Giovana Araujo, 27, a psychology student at the event.
Renowned octogenarians of Brazilian music, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Chico Buarque, took to a truck-mounted stage alongside palm trees to sing resistance songs from Brazil’s dictatorship era.
Crowds sang along as a blow-up doll of Bolsonaro wearing black-and-white prison stripes bobbed next to one of US President Donald Trump, who has punished Brazil with tariffs in retaliation for the prosecution of his ally.
Veloso, 83, said musicians “could not fail to respond to the horrors that have been creeping in around us.”
The artists “were literally boycotted during the military dictatorship, and seeing them here is synonymous with resistance,” Araujo said, describing their appearance as “revolutionary.”
“Once again, artists are mobilizing the people to demand justice in this country,” said Yasmin Aimee Coelho Pessoa, a 20-year-old sociology student.
In the megalopolis Sao Paulo, protesters unfurled a giant Brazilian flag, in response to a US flag displayed at a pro-Bolsonaro march this month.
The Political Debate Monitor at the University of Sao Paulo estimated crowds of 42,000 in the economic heartland, and a similar figure in Rio de Janeiro — the biggest turnout for the left since Lula was re-elected in 2022.
Lula’s razor-thin victory set off a series of political crises that still reverberate in Brazil today.
Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting to bar Lula from taking office, in a plan that judges said only failed due to a lack of support from military top brass.
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