Brazil: Bolsonaro's Fan Calls for a Coup While Holding a Rifle

Former Lawmaker Roberto Jefferson Saturday called to support a coup d'état in Brazil, a political proposal that the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has been positioning through rallies in public places.

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“I am getting ready to fight in the Good War against communism, dictatorship, tyranny, traitors, and sellers of the homeland. Brazil above all. God above everything,” said the president of the center-right Brazilian Labor Party (PTB).

This politician also requested that Bolsonaro dismiss the Superior Court of Justice (STB), suspend the operating licenses of the opposition mainstream media, and fulfill his promises to expel Venezuelan diplomats, fight homosexuals, and defend Christianity.

"Bolsonaro needs two urgent actions: remove and replace all Supreme Court ministers and remove all O Globo’s radio and television concessions. If he does not do it, he will fall, Jefferson said.

"Bolsonaro was elected with the promise from aligning with countries professing our Jewish Christian culture in defense of family, democracy, and freedom... The Supreme Court awkwardly prevented him from doing so."

To demonstrate his political position, Jefferson posted his photograph wielding an automatic assault rifle and ended his call using Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign slogan: “Brazil above all, God above everything.”

Recently, the former lawmaker also expressed his support for the far-right President by questioning the actions of Chamber of Deputies president Rodrigo Maia, for he has not adopted a clear and frontal attitude against Bolsonaro's impeachment.

Jefferson has also strongly criticized public universities by saying that they are the "arms of the Workers' Party (PT) and the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL)." 

Brazilian progressive sectors immediately reacted to the call made by Jefferson and stressed that the former lawmaker was openly acting against the law.

"Jefferson committed a very serious crime by calling, with a gun in his hand, the Bolsonarist coup ... he incites the subversion of the political order, which is a crime under National Security Act," constitutional law professor Flavio Martins tweeted.​​​​​​​

This bizarre event occurs one day after the Supreme Court received a video related to the investigation of abuse of power against the Brazilian president.

This unedited video would ratify what the former Justice Minister Sergio Moro denounced before being removed from his post: in a meeting held on April 22, Bolsonaro stated his intention to interfere with the Federal Police, an autonomous institution that investigates processes against him and his political associates.

"If sufficient evidence was found for a formal accusation against the President, he could be suspended from office for 180 days," the agency EFE explained.​​​​​​​