The Brazilian Supreme Court has done what its U.S. counterpart has tragically failed to do

The Brazilian Supreme Court has convicted (on 11 September) and sentenced ex-President Bolsonaro for his crimes of coup attempt, plot to assassinate political and judicial leaders and incitement of mobs to destroy the buildings of the Supreme Court, the Presidential palace, and the Congress, after he lost the elections in 2022. The court also sentenced seven other military and political accomplices of Bolsonaro. Earlier, the court had convicted more than 600 far right extremist followers of Bolsonaro who had vandalized the iconic government buildings of Brasila. 

The trial and delivery of judgements were telecast live so that the whole country and the world can see and hear the details of the crimes, the evidence, arguments and defense in the case transparently and publicly. The court showed clips of the most dramatic moments of the coup attempt. Bolsonaro and his accomplices had self-incriminated themselves with public statements, interviews and activities in live TV. The audiovisual evidence for their attempts  against democratic institutions are in the archives of the TV channels.

Brazilians, who had suffered many coups and military dictatorships in their history, did not want a regression to the ignominious past. Bolsonaro's conviction is clearly a victory for the democracy of Brazil. It is a warning to future coup plotters. As Justice Cármen Lúcia noted in her decisive vote this week, the Bolsonaro case is “an encounter between Brazil’s past, its present, and its future”. The last dictatorship which ruled from 1964 to 1985 had killed, tortured  and disappeared hundreds of activists for democracy. Bolsonaro’s military coup did not succeed because the army and air force commanders refused to participate. 

In other Latin American countries, members of military dictatorships who had committed atrocities were brought before justice and convicted. But the Brazilian military torturers and killers got away  with their crimes. They got impunity as part of the bargain to transfer power to the civilians in 1985. So, this is the first time in the history of Brazilian democracy that the coup plotters have been tried for their attempt to disrupt democracy. 

Bolsonaro has always publicly expressed his pride and admiration for the past military dictatorships and the killings and tortures openly and unapologetically. Ex-President Dilma Rouseff was a victim of imprisonment and torture by the military regime. Bolsonaro had dedicated his vote for impeachment of President Dilma Rouseff to the notorious Colonel Ustra who tortured her when she was caught as a young leftwing guerilla fighter. He called Ustra as a national hero.

Bolsonaro has never hidden his contempt for democracy. During his presidential visit to Chile, he praised Pinochet dictatorship, causing embarrassment to his Chilean hosts. “Elections won’t change anything in this country”, an angry Bolsonaro told an interviewer on the programme Câmara Aberta, broadcast by TV Band in 1999. “It will only change on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do, killing 30,000 people beginning with Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the President of Brazil at that time. If we kill some innocent people that’s fine because in every war innocent people die.” Shouting at the interviewer, an intemperate Bolsonaro said that if he became president, he would dissolve Congress on his first day in office. 

Bolsonaro had worked systematically and consistently to undermine democratic institutions during his four year presidency as well as before and after his presidential term. He had filled his cabinet with military officers, including serving ones and politicized the armed forces. Anticipating his election loss, Bolsonaro had tried to discredit the electoral system systematically with disinformation and fake news. He held a public meeting even with the foreign ambassadors in Brasilia and explained to them his lack of belief in the electoral system. He had ordered police roadblocks to prevent voting by Lula supporters and monitored opponents using the national intelligence agency. 

The Bolsonarist mobs had camped several times in front of the army headquarters in Brasilia and called for the return of military dictatorship and closure of the Congress and Supreme Court while President Bolsonaro smiled and cheered the crowds. In 2018, Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro, was recorded speaking in a classroom, saying that the Supreme Court could be shut down if it went against his father. He said, “One wouldn’t even need a Jeep. Sending a soldier and corporal would be enough to close the Court” 

Bolsonaro has ignited a new gun culture in Brazil. His three politician sons have been fierce proponents of expanding gun ownership through policy proposals and social media posts. Eduardo Bolsonaro has spoken admiringly of the Second Amendment in the United States. He has lobbied to make the Brazilian market more attractive to foreign arms manufacturers, which he said would lower prices and provide gun buyers with more choices. Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator, made the promotion of gun manufacturing in Brazil the focus of his first project in the legislature. During his presidency,  Bolsonaro had loosened gun control to make more firearms available easily to more of his followers. Gun ownership rocketed by 98% during Bolsonaro’s first year as President.  Weapons newly available to the public now included semi-automatic rifles, previously only available to the army. In April 2020, Bolsonaro revoked decrees that existed to facilitate the tracing and identification of weapons and ammunition. One week later, he tripled the quantity of ammunition available for purchase by civilians, saying on record in a ministerial meeting, that he wanted “everyone” to carry guns.. Bolsonaro's signature favorite pose is gun shooting gesture. Bolsonaro reaffirmed in his inaugural speech, “Good citizens deserve the means to defend themselves through gun ownership”. His supporters in the Congress cheered and applauded him by pointing their fingers in the shape of a gun. 

During his 2019 visit to US, he tweeted, “For the first time in a while, a pro-America Brazilian president arrives in DC.” He had made an unusual  visit to the CIA headquarters. This was bizarre. No foreign president goes to CIA office. According to diplomatic protocol, it should have been the CIA Director who should have called on him and not the other way. After the visit, Eduardo Bolsonaro described the CIA as “one of the most respected intelligence agencies in the world,” in a tweet.

After losing the elections. Bolsonaro fled to Miami in an official plane without handing over power to his successor. He thought it was safe to incite the mobs from the US in order to claim later that he was not present in Brasilia when his followers ransacked government buildings.  His son Eduardo Bolsonaro has been camping in US and has succeeded in convincing Trump to impose sanctions and tariffs on Brazil. He has been proudly claiming credit for these Trump punishments against Brazil. 

President Trump had imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil saying that it was stop the prosecution of his friend Bolsonaro. He imposed sanctions against judges and revoked the US visas of some. He had exempted two judges, who were appointed by Bolsonaro, when he was President. 

President Trump has reacted to the Supreme Court verdict saying, "It's very much what they tried to do with me, but they didn't get away with it at all. He was a good man, I don't see that happening. “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt​,” tweeted the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, calling the conviction “unjust”. Eduardo Bolsonaro , who continues to lobby  with the MAGA crowd says that "he expected the US would take further measures in the wake of the verdict."

The Brazilian government and judiciary have rejected the brazen American attempts to interfere in their domestic governance and justice system. President Lula had said in a CNN interview, " If Trump had done in Brasilia what he had done in Washington DC on 6 January, he would have been put on trial". The Brazilians have not forgotten the past American support to the Brazilian military dictatorship as well as other Latin American military regimes.

In an ironic twist, on the day the Supreme Court sentenced Bolsonaro defying Trump sanctions, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer secured an order to sell 100 aircrafts to the US airline Avelo. It has placed a firm order for 50 Embraer jets (valued at 4.4 billion dollars) with purchase rights for another 50. Trump has exempted Brazilian aircrafts from his  50% tariff on Brazil. Aircraft is one of the 700 plus items Trump has given exemption from his egregious tariff on Brazil.

Reacting to the Brazilian Supreme Court verdict, an opinion column in New York Times on 12 September (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/opinion/trump-bolsonaro-conviction-democracy.html) says, "The Brazilian Supreme Court has done what the U.S. federal courts tragically failed to do: bring a former president who assaulted democracy to justice. President Trump also attempted to overturn an election. But he was sent not to prison but back to the White House. Trump has criticized Brazil’s effort to defend its democracy. He has punished it with tariffs and sanctions to bully Brazilians into subverting their legal system — and their democracy along with it. In effect, the U.S. administration is punishing Brazilians for doing something Americans should have done, but failed to. Brazilian democracy is healthier today than America’s. Rather than undermining Brazil’s effort to defend its democracy, Americans should learn from it". 

Apocalypse in the Tropics - Brazilian documentary film

This film, released in Netflix recently, has come at the right time when Bolsonaro is on trial for his apocalyptic attempts to overthrow the elected government of President Lula and assassinate political leaders and and judges in 2023. 

It brings out the collusion of evangelical leaders in the anti-democratic conspiracies of Bolsonaro.  Today, the evangelicals, representing 30% of the population, have become a powerful political force. 

Evangelism, which originated in the US was pushed into Brazil as part of the strategy of the US war on communism to counter the “ghost” of Communism. 

They have become a serious rival to Catholicism in the largest catholic country in the world. 

Evangelicals have systematically used their influence on their followers to gain political power and personal benefits. They advise the voters openly whom to vote for or against. The evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia had helped the campaign of Bolsonaro. Malafaia had been working even harder to defeat Lula and the Workers Party.  Some of the evangelical pastors openly called for military to intervene and overthrow the elected government of President Lula. They had encouraged their followers to attack the Congress, the Presidential palace and the Supreme Court on 8 January to facilitate the coup planned by Bolsonaro.

Malafaia and many other pastors have become millionaires and even billionaires. They own private jets, live in luxury and make pilgrimages to Miami for shopping and entertainment. They have built business empires with publications, TV channels, and music among other ways of making money. 

The documentary film reveals how the Brazilian democracy has been undermined and eroded by the corrosive influence of extremist evangelical pastors who manipulate and mislead their followers. It has vividly captured the statements, agenda and activities of the Evangelicals and their political accomplices. Of course, it has also pointed out the positive contribution of Evangelicals to the poor masses, giving them hope, identity and offering some social services.

The evangelicals have now become a formidable force in the politics, culture and social parts of the Brazilian society. Even Lula has admitted that he needed to reach out to the Evangelicals for votes.  

Petra Costa, the talented Brazilian film director, has directed the documentary in her own inimitable style. She had earlier directed another brilliant documentary “ The edge of democracy”. She has let the camera speak to the audience directly and has made the audience to think and reflect, with thought provoking and profound commentaries.

Costa opens the film with the images and videos of construction work for building the new capital Brasilia in the sixties. Her opening commentary, “ Brasilia was designed as a vision of Brazil’s future based on a desire to break with the centuries old Catholic colonial tradition and replace it with a modernist vision of equality and justice. The cement that held the buildings of the three pillars of democracy (the Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court) was a faith…not in God..but instead in the equality of progress and democracy”.  

Costa recalls her 2016 visit to the Brazilian Congress when she encountered the dramatic rise of Evangelicals within the legislature. The evangelicals got an opening to wield their clout when the country was going through political instability and economic crisis. The evangelicals brought their advocacy and agenda from the pulpits into the Congress with issues such as abortion, rights of gays and minorities. They turned viciously against the Left taking advantage of the imprisonment of Lula and impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. They worked closely with the far-right extremist Bolsonaro and helped him to come to power. When he lost the re-election, the Evangelicals would not accept. They joined forces with the Bolsonarists in the coup attempts.

The documentary ends with the images and videos of the destruction and damage of the buildings of the Congress, Presidency and the Supreme Court and the collection of cement debris and broken glass pieces by the workers.  Her final poignant commentary, “Apocalypse does not mean the end of the world. It is an unveiling, a revelation, and a chance to open our eyes”.  

The documentary not only opens the eyes of the Brazilians but also those in the rest of the world which has witnessed the apocalyptic attempts of Trump to hold on to power after losing reelection in January 2021. He had set an example to Bolsonaro by inciting his rogue followers to attack the Capitol Hill on 6 January 2021 in Washington DC. 

The documentary has enough evidence to convict not only Bolsonaro and his military accomplices but even Malafaia and his dangerous ilk. They have self-incriminated themselves openly and unambiguously with their own anti-democratic and pro-coup statements and incitements to violence. There is no need for any more evidence.

God save Brazil …from the extremist Evangelicals and their far-right political accomplices.

Mexico creates history with its new system of election of judges by the country’s voters

Mexico creates history in the world with its new system of election of judges by the country’s voters 

Mexico is the only country in the world which elects its judges by popular voting

The new system was created by a constitutional reform law passed by the Mexican Congress in September 2024.  This was proposed by the then-President López Obrador in February 2024. He was frustrated by the judicial obstacles created by conservative judges against his progressive and populist policies and programs. In any case, the judicial system was stained by nepotism and corruption. The previous system was a career judiciary system, which promoted candidates based on experience and exams.

The judicial elections were held on 1June 2025. Thousands of lawyers contested. Although the candidates are supposed to be free from political affiliation, the ruling Morena party endorsed some candidates discretely, contributing to their success.

The requirements for aspiring judges are a law degree, good grades and letters of recommendation. Prospective candidates are filtered by evaluation committees and submitted to the National Electoral Institute (INE) for inclusion on the ballot.

On 1 September, 881 elected federal judges including all nine Supreme Court justices took their office.  There will be another election in 2027 to elect another 800 plus judges. The Supreme Court justices serve a single 12-year term, while other federal judges serve renewable nine-year terms.

Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, is the first Indigenous person to hold the highest judicial office in Mexico in its history. He had received the highest number of votes.

An Indigenous purification ceremony was held in Mexico City's Zócalo square to consecrate the newly elected Supreme Court justices. This ceremonial act was a symbolic moment reflecting the recognition, inclusion and honoring of the Indigenous people of Mexico. This is an unprecedented ceremony with the presentation of staffs of office and service from the country’s indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples to the elected justices of the Supreme Court of Justice. The ceremony took place in front of more than 1,500 attendees, with traditional music and copal smoke. Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, the president-elect, the sole speaker for his colleagues, said that he and his colleagues are assuming the role of “justices of the people,” with the clear mission of “cleaning up” the judiciary of corruption and nepotism.

While Mexico is the first country to elect all its judges, the system of election is practiced in 38 states of USA  which use some form of election to select their state supreme court justices. In fact, eight states use partisan method for selecting supreme court justices, where candidates appear on the ballot with their political party affiliation. These are: Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The US politicians and media are the harshest critics of the New Mexican system of election, although some of the US states use the same system. The flawed system of US judiciary has allowed a convicted felon like Trump to become president and commit more crimes and atrocities. But the Brazilian justice system has banned Bolsonaro for the same crimes committed by Trump and has now put him on trial for his attempts to sabotage democracy.

Predictably, there is lot of criticism of the new system. These include politicization of judiciary, dilution of independence, flawed system of screening of candidates, potential for manipulation of elections by cartels and lobbies, scope for election of candidates without adequate experience or expertise. The fact that the voter turnout was a meagre 13%  strengthened the critics arguments. Many winner of the judicial elections including five of the nine Supreme Court judges and Chief Justice Aguilar are said to have close ties to the ruling Morena party.

Let us not judge in haste.. elected judges can cause much less damage to countries and the world than deranged politicians like Trump and Bolsonaro when they get elected.