BRASILIA, Feb. 12 (AP) Former President Jair Bolsonaro said Saturday he intends to return to Brazil “in the next few weeks.”
The comments, made at an event at an evangelical church in Florida, were Bolsonaro’s first public statement about returning home.
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The far-right politician has been in the United States since arriving in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 31, the day his leftist rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was inaugurated as Brazil’s incumbent President’s Eve.
Saturday’s event, held entirely in Portuguese for supporters of Bolsonaro in Brazil living abroad, was organized by the right-wing group Yes Brazil USA. Bolsonaro was cheered throughout the event.
There has been speculation in recent weeks about when Bolsonaro might return to Brazil, where multiple investigations into possible wrongdoing are underway.
He initially entered the United States on a one-month diplomatic visa, which was due to expire on January 31. He was accompanied by a group of presidential advisers and his wife, who both left Florida last month.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers told Brazilian media in recent days that they had applied for tourist visas to extend his stay in the United States.
Amid speculation over Bolsonaro’s plans, one of his sons, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, told Brazilian reporters he did not know when his father would return. “It could be tomorrow, it could be six months from now, he may never come back. I don’t know. He’s relaxing,” Son said.
For the first time in his more than three-decade political career as a lawmaker and president, Bolsonaro no longer enjoys special legal protection requiring any trial to take place in the Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro is under investigation by the Supreme Court on four counts and was sent to the trial court last week.
One of the probes is whether Bolsonaro played any role in inciting riots on Jan. 8 when his supporters stormed government buildings in the capital, Brasilia, demanding an overturn of his electoral defeat to Lula. .
Investigators are also looking into who organized and financed the massive rally of Bolsonaro supporters who came to the capital from across Brazil.
An investigation by the Brazilian Ministry of Justice is into who is responsible for inciting the crime and who financed the travel of people from all over the country to Brasilia. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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