History Illustrated is a series of perspectives that puts news events and current affairs into historical context using graphics generated with artificial intelligence.
Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil is heading to trial, accused of leading a failed coup after losing the 2022 presidential election. On March 26, a Supreme Federal Court panel ruled that there was enough evidence for Bolsonaro to be prosecuted. How did it go so wrong for the far-right populist?
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In 2008, despite his low profile in Brazil’s lower house, Bolsonaro, a retired army captain, was able to ride a hard-right wave of law-and-order policies and a nationalist agenda to win the presidency.Observers suggest two major blights in Bolsonaro’s term were the deforestation of the Amazon and his mishandling of the COVID pandemic. During his re-election campaign in 2022, he said Brazil’s voting system was open to fraud and that he might not recognise the results. He lost to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.On January 8, 2023, a week after Lula took office, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters staged an insurrection, swarming Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Federal Court and the presidential palace.In June 2023, the Superior Electoral Court ruled that Bolsonaro had abused his power by making false claims about Brazil’s voting system and barred him from office until 2030.His troubles did not end there. In February 2025, the former president was formally charged with heading an alleged coup plot linked to the insurrection, which he has denied. The attorney general accused Bolsonaro of leading a “criminal organisation” to subvert democracy.
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Those legal troubles seem only to have emboldened him. On March 16, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters answered his call to stage a protest in support of those jailed for the insurrection.Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, has relocated to the United States, where he hopes to rally support for his father.Before the Supreme Federal Court order for him to stand trial, Bolsonaro had left little doubt as to how he felt about running for office in the 2026 election despite his ban. “Elections without Bolsonaro is a denial of democracy in Brazil,” he said. Now, though, instead of trying to get re-elected, Bolsonaro will be trying to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison.
