Brazil's Lula acts decisively against the coup plotters.
The TV images of the Brazilian coup plotters couldn’t have been more familiar.
I watched as fascist thugs broke passed helpless security guards around the federal building in Brasilia, the country’s capital, using crowd control barriers to break through doors and windows.
The fascist former Brazilian President Bolsonaro had for weeks been claiming his loss was the result of a rigged election, following the script of his American mentor, Donald Trump.
Two days before the Leftist victor Luiz Inácio da Silva, known as Lula, took office, Bolosonaro fled to Florida.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson writes,
Bolsonaro left Brazil for Florida before Lula took office, while he was still president. That status apparently enabled him to enter the U.S. on an A-1 visa, reserved for heads of state. That visa is normally canceled when the person holding it leaves office, but since he is already in this country, it is not clear what its status is. Normally, anyone on an A-1 visa who is no longer on official business must leave the country within 30 days, but if Brazil tries to extradite him, the process could stretch on, putting the Biden administration in an awkward position.
The right-wing coup attempt against Lula failed just as the MAGA coup attempt has so far failed.
The difference between the response of the Biden administration and the Lula administration to the attempted coups are striking.
Lula has acted quickly in arresting and going after the coup plotters.
In the United States, the Justice Department has gone after hundreds of protesters who attacked the Capitol on January 6th. They are the low hanging fruit.
However the leader of the coup, Donald Trump, walks free.
And the Congressional plotters and supporters of the coup not only still hold office, they are more powerful than ever.
