Brazil’s Bolsonaro slams ‘vague’ accusations after attempted coup indictment

By Eléonore Hughes

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday dismissed as vague accusations that he orchestrated an attempted coup to stay in office despite his 2022 election defeat and said the charges were the result of an authoritarian regime manufacturing internal enemies.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet on Tuesday charged Bolsonaro with devising a multi-pronged scheme to remain in power despite his loss to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, including an alleged plan to poison Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of the former president.

Lula on Wednesday said the current stage was “only the indictment” and said Bolsonaro and the other 33 people facing charges of plotting a coup would have every right to defend themselves.

Bolsonaro took to X and Instagram say that “the trick of accusing democratic opposition leaders of plotting coups is not something new.”

“Every authoritarian regime, in its lust