Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets on the nation’s Independence Day on Sunday in dueling political protests, opening a tense week that is expected to conclude with the conviction of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
The largely peaceful demonstrations played out in cities across the nation.
On the right, Brazilians draped in Brazilian and American flags protested the criminal prosecution of Mr. Bolsonaro on charges that he attempted to hold on to power after losing the 2022 election. On the left, people called for Mr. Bolsonaro’s imprisonment and denounced efforts by President Trump to protect the former leader.
By Sunday afternoon, aerial images from multiple protests left little question that Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters significantly outnumbered protesters on the left, showing that — even amid his legal troubles — he remains a significant political force in Brazil.
But will it matter?
On Friday, Brazil’s Supreme Court is widely expected to convict Mr. Bolsonaro on charges that he attempted a coup. He could face more than 40 years in prison.
Mr. Trump has been trying to pressure the Brazilian authorities to drop the charges, imposing 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian imports and sanctions against the Brazilian Supreme Court justice leading the case, but to little avail. His efforts have so far only strengthened support for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Mr. Bolsonaro’s leftist rival, while the court has pushed ahead with the trial.
A day before presiding over the annual Independence Day military parade, Mr. Lula delivered a message aimed at Mr. Trump. “We are not, and will never again be, anyone’s colony,” he said in a televised address on Saturday evening. “We do not accept orders from anyone.”
Brazil’s attention has now turned to a debate in the nation’s Congress over whether to grant amnesty to Mr. Bolsonaro and other members of his right-wing movement for their actions following the 2022 election. Hundreds of people who stormed Brazil’s halls of power in a failed bid to spur a military takeover are serving prison sentences.
Party leaders and members of Congress have been trying to broker deals on amnesty legislation that could keep Mr. Bolsonaro out of prison — while also blocking him from running for office again.
With Mr. Bolsonaro’s conviction seen as a foregone conclusion by both the right and left, the protests on Sunday focused in large part on the question of amnesty.
“Unfortunately, we know he will be unfairly convicted,” said Sheila Santos, 56, a retired police officer at a protest in Brasília, the capital. She wore a shirt demanding amnesty for Mr. Bolsonaro. “This is our hope now,” she said.
The mood was both festive and angry at the pro-Bolsonaro protests. Vendors sold skewered meat, popcorn and beer, while political leaders on the right — including the former president’s sons — delivered harsh speeches against the Supreme Court and what they view as the political persecution of Mr. Bolsonaro.
Mr. Bolsonaro’s movement has long been able to bring enormous crowds to the street, and Sunday was no different. A sea of people in the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag filled a long stretch of São Paulo’s main avenue, as well as along Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.
What was different this year was the abundance of praise for the United States.
In Brasília, one man posed for photos in a Trump mask. In Rio de Janeiro, vendors sold shirts with photos of Mr. Trump and the word “Magnitsky,” a reference to the law the U.S. government used to place sanctions on the Brazilian Supreme Court justice. In São Paulo, protesters passed an enormous American flag over their heads.
Even though Mr. Bolsonaro has been barred from holding office until 2030, right-wing protesters held out hope that his political rights would somehow be restored. Many placed their faith in the White House.
“It’s political persecution,” said Davidson Roque, 36, a food vendor draped in the American flag. “And Trump is helping us, he sees what’s happening here.”
On the other side of most of Brazil’s major cities, the message was exactly the opposite. Demonstrators held aloft illustrations of Mr. Bolsonaro behind bars and signs calling to “defeat Trump.”
“It’s absurd,” Ana Baldas, 76, a retired psychoanalyst, said of Mr. Trump’s efforts to intervene. “He can’t dictate what we do in our country.”
Ms. Baldas was at a protest in downtown Rio de Janeiro, where wealthy intellectuals who wanted to defend democracy mixed with activists farther on the left waving communist flags. Everyone chanted against the idea of amnesty for Mr. Bolsonaro.
The amnesty issue is particularly sensitive in Brazil, where military officials were once granted that protection for crimes committed during the nation’s dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, when Brazilians were imprisoned, tortured and disappeared.
Ms. Baldas conceded that Brazil’s Congress may pass an amnesty law, but she said she hoped it would ultimately be undone by a presidential veto or court challenge.
“We’ll end up with Bolsonaro being in prison anyway, and things will calm down,” she said. “At least that’s my most optimistic hope.”
Jack Nicas is The Times’s Mexico City bureau chief, leading coverage of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
Ana Ionova is a contributor to The Times based in Rio de Janeiro, covering Brazil and neighboring countries.
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