Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the constitution does not authorize military intervention in politics under any circumstances, indirectly rejecting former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under investigation for attempting a coup.
The unanimous ruling by the court’s 11 judges rejected claims often made by Bolsonaro and his far-right allies that Brazil’s constitution defines the military as a “moderating force” that can intervene in the government in times of crisis. Ta.
“There is an urgent need to end dangerous interpretations that distort the Constitution and threaten the democratic rule of law,” Louis Fuchs, the lead judge in the case, wrote in his ruling.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain who led Brazil from 2019 to 2022, has repeatedly insisted on the constitutionality of military intervention in politics.
He is currently in a federal coalition in which he and his top advisers, including senior military officials, seek to keep him in power after Brazil’s 2022 general elections, which he lost to left-wing veteran Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He is being investigated on suspicion of orchestrating what police call an “attempted coup.” .
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Investigators say Bolsonaro, an avowed admirer of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985, edited a draft decree declaring a state of emergency and holding new elections. That’s what it means.
During the campaign, Bolsonaro attacked Brazil’s voting system as rife with fraud, but he denied any wrongdoing, saying he was a victim of political persecution.
Bolsonaro and his supporters often cite Article 142 of Brazil’s 1988 constitution, which allows military intervention in the event of a collapse of government institutions.
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The center-left Democratic Labor Party (PDT) asked the Supreme Court to rule on that interpretation.
The High Court rejected this in its entirety.
“The same Constitution that says in Article 1 that ‘all power proceeds from the people’ cannot be read as authorizing ‘military intervention,'” Fuchs wrote.
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The ruling came just after the 60th anniversary of the March 31, 1964 coup that established a dictatorship.
In the wake of President Bolsonaro’s defeat and the riot by Bolsonaro supporters who stormed the government chamber in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, the national debate surrounding this anniversary has taken on new relevance, and the election was stolen. He urged military intervention.
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