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Thousands of Brazilians have taken to the streets to rejoice at Jair Bolsonaro’s conviction for plotting a coup, as progressive politicians celebrated the historic move and rightwing figures linked to Donald Trump responded with anger and threats.
Chile’s leftwing president, Gabriel Boric, led regional congratulations of the decision to jail Bolsonaro for 27 years for leading a criminal organisation that sought to seize power after the far-right populist lost the 2022 election.
“My respect to Brazilian democracy which fended off a coup attempt and today judges and convicts those responsible for it. They tried to destroy [democracy] and today it emerges strengthened,” Boric tweeted, adding: “Democracy always!”
Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, said: “All putschists must be convicted. Those are the rules of democracy.”
In Latin America, 11 September is a date deeply associated with authoritarianism and violence: it was on this day in 1973 that Gen Augusto Pinochet launched a US-backed coup in Chile that ushered in 17 years of brutal military rule during which thousands were killed or forcibly disappeared.
But on Thursday jubilant crowds in Brazil’s capital, Brasília, celebrated how Bolsonaro’s conviction had given new meaning to the notorious date.
“I’m really overflowing with joy. This is such a symbolic day for us,” said Renan Vidal, a bank worker who was also celebrating his 37th birthday as Bolsonaro and seven co-conspirators were found guilty of trying to “annihilate” Brazilian democracy.
“It’s the best birthday present ever,” said Vidal, who wore a rainbow flag over his shoulders. “I’m part of the LGBT community and our community was one of the worst affected by the Bolsonaro government. So for us it’s a moment to commemorate,” he added as fireworks exploded above the throng.
Yucca Nani, 34, said her generation associated 11 September with another terrible event: the 9/11 attacks in the US. “It was the day that changed the history of the modern world,” she said, adding: “Now in Brazil [the date] has a new meaning, which is Bolsonaro’s conviction.”
Also at the street party was Beatriz Matos, an anthropologist whose husband, the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, was murdered in the Amazon with British journalist Dom Phillips during Bolsonaro’s 2019-2023 administration. Many believe Bolsonaro’s violent, pro-gun rhetoric and dismantling of environmental and Indigenous protections helped create the backdrop for the crime.
“I feel relief, happiness and fire in my eyes,” Matos said of Bolsonaro’s demise. “We must celebrate. Justice is being done!”
Beto Marubo, an Indigenous leader who is godfather to Pereira’s son, said: “This is a special day for us Indigenous people and for minorities … We were the ones who most suffered under Bolsonaro and this is a breath of justice.”
Those festivities contrasted with the ire of Bolsonaro backers, in and outside of Brazil.
The US deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, accused Alexandre de Moraes, the supreme court judge who oversaw Bolsonaro’s trial, of “laying waste to the rule of law” and “driving relations between our two great nations to their darkest point in two centuries”.
Bolsonaro’s congressman son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has spent months lobbying Trump officials over his father’s fate, told Reuters he expected “a firm response with actions from the US government” after Thursday’s ruling.
Describing Bolsonaro as the victim of a “political execution”, Trump has hit Brazilian imports with 50% tariffs and announced sanctions and visa revocations against supreme court judges and other officials.
Asked on Thursday if he was planning further sanctions, Trump replied: “I thought he was a good president of Brazil and it’s very surprising that [this conviction] could happen.”
“That’s very much like they tried to do with me. But they didn’t get away with it at all,” he added.
Trump’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio, said: “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch-hunt.”
At the carnival-style party in Brasília, revellers shrugged off those US warnings – as did Brazil’s foreign ministry which said “threats like the one made today by [Rubio] … will not intimidate our democracy”.
“Let them do it,” Vidal said of possible further US pressure. “I think Brazil’s institutions are very solid and we will not cave in to Trump’s sanctions, however powerful his country may be.”
A carnival parade called the Victory of Democracy Procession is planned in Rio on Friday night.
