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After a contentious presidential race—seen by most as Brazil’s most consequential election in decades—the country’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, opted to take an unconventional route to get out of attending incoming President Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva’s inauguration: Fleeing the country.
Bolsonaro faced extreme heat in recent years after his COVID denialism cost the country thousands of lives. Bolsonaro undermined efforts from medical and government officials to stop the spread of the virus, following the playbook set early on in the pandemic by U.S. President Donald Trump. Bolsonaro’s catastrophic approach to COVID weakened his approval ratings, but left him an ally in the eyes of many in Brazil’s working class, after he fought against isolation by claiming it would damage the country’s economy.
Bolsonaro faced a tight and combative election last fall battling against Lula, the country’s leftist longtime former president who was jailed in 2018 on corruption charges. Brazilian run-off elections were subject to claims of voter suppression from Bolsonaro’s camp. Even after Lula’s win was declared, Bolsonaro refused to accept defeat, with protests erupting across the country and constituents blocking roadways in scenes that called to memory the American January 6 insurrection.