The Latin American Report # 481

The Supreme Court of the South American giant ruled out on Tuesday all the appeals filed by the defense of the controversial former president Jair Bolsonaro as part of the hearings that it conducts to decide whether to open a criminal trial against him and other former officials for allegedly attempting a coup d'état and four other crimes. The expectation is that the court will advance the case. Bolsonaro, who has acknowledged that there were “discussions” aimed only at safeguarding institutionality—then abandoned—, accuses that the judicial process is flawed in order to obtain a sentence against him that could be around the 40 years. His defense unsuccessfully tried to remove from the process the disputed judge Alexandre de Moraes, because he is involved as an alleged victim of a conspiracy to assassinate him—like Lula da Silva—, and other judges strongly associated in the past with the veteran leader of the Brazilian Workers' Party.

The court's jurisdiction in the case is also being contested, with the added argument that, since this stage has been reached, it should be heard by its full court and not a single chamber. The other crimes charged against Bolsonaro and seven other defendants are violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, involvement in armed criminal organization, aggravated damage, and deterioration of protected patrimony. The third hearing is taking place this Wednesday without the presence of Bolsonaro, who did attend yesterday's session. “I'm fine. I always hope for justice. Nothing is substantiated in the accusations, made in a biased way, by the Federal Police,” Bolsonaro said. “This is the most scandalous sequence of casuistry in the history of the Brazilian Judiciary: procedural adaptations and changes of jurisprudence made to order, with name, surname and term of validity,” he added in social media. Political polarization is brutal in Brazil.

Haiti

Not much has changed there. An agent of the Kenyan forces assisting in the extremely difficult task of containing criminal gangs was reported missing after an attack in the middle of an armored vehicle rescue operation. The event took place in Artibonite, the same region where the first Kenyan agent died at the hands of the gangs that, like cancer, have compromised vast geographical areas of the country, mainly the capital Port-au-Prince, where they control at least 85% of its territory.

Cuban resilience

In the town where Hemingway lived

Immigration notes via X