Bolsonaro ends his exile: Far-right radical plots comeback

Three months after he left Brazil to avoid passing the presidential sash to his leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former president Jair Bolsonaro has flown home hoping to prove his political career is far from over.

- Tom Phillips

The far-right radical flew to the US on the eve of Lula's 1 January inauguration and watched the historic transition of power from a rented villa near Disney World in Florida. It was from Florida, too, that Bolsonaro watched the 8 January assault on Brazil's democratic institutions that was perpetrated by hardcore supporters seemingly bent on overthrowing Lula's government.

Bolsonaro, who has refused to recognise Lula's victory in last October's election, returned at 6.38am last Thursday from his self-imposed exile. Hundreds of diehard supporters had gathered to welcome him, including some who had travelled hundreds of kilometres, although the turnout was considerably smaller than rallies at the peak of Bolsonaro's power. One of Lula's top ministers called what was supposed to be Bolsonaro's triumphant homecoming a "flop".

Maria Venturelli, from the northeastern beach town of Prado, said: "It's wonderful to know he's back. It means hope. Hope of a better Brazil. Hope of a Brazil without corruption."

Venturelli shed tears as she described how she believed Bolsonaro had saved her tourism company from bankruptcy during the Covid pandemic, during which he controversially resisted lockdown measures and undermined vaccination efforts.

"I have a personal debt to this man ... I cannot abandon a man who didn't abandon me," said Venturelli, who said she had not been vaccinated against Covid and claimed, without offering proof, that three friends had died after receiving the shots.