Still appetite for a military coup despite guilty verdict
The Guardian Weekly
|October 17, 2025
Hours after supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro ransacked Brasília on 8 January 2023, three electricity pylons were brought down in different locations, between 1,600 and 2,900km away from Brazil's capital.
In the following days, 21 more towers were toppled, all using the same method. The perpetrators knew exactly which lines to sever to cause the most harm to the power supply.
The elaborate modus operandi led the federal police to suspect that the attacks had been carried out by members of the Brazilian army's elite unit, known as the "black cap boys". Yet two years and eight months on, the perpetrators have still not been identified.
Bolsonaro was last month found guilty of attempting to overthrow democracy, along with seven of his closest allies, including five senior military officers.
The verdict prompted an outburst of relief and celebration among defenders of democracy, but there is a growing sense among researchers - and even some former officers - that the armed forces have not been held accountable as institutions.
This story is from the October 17, 2025 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM The Guardian Weekly
The Guardian Weekly
I love when my enemies hate, me
Every day, Hasan Piker broadcasts a marathon Twitch stream, airing his views to 3 million followers. It has led to him becoming one of the biggest voices on the US left. But Piker's online fame has drawn vitriol towards him in real life
10 mins
January 02, 2026
The Guardian Weekly
Baseinstinct Why did Trump order airstrikes on Nigeria?
Claims that Christians face religious persecution overseas have become a major motivating force for Trump's base.
2 mins
January 02, 2026
The Guardian Weekly
Florence's outcasts A vivid and absorbing history of one of the first orphanages in Europe
Joseph Luzzi, a professor at Bard College in New York, is a Dante scholar whose books argue for the relevance of the Italian art and literature of the late middle ages and Renaissance to our own times.
1 mins
January 02, 2026
The Guardian Weekly
Need cheering up after a terrible year? I have just the story for you
Perhaps you are searching for reasons to be cheerful at the end of a particularly dispiriting year and the start of a new one that may well offer more of the same? In that case, read on.
4 mins
January 02, 2026
The Guardian Weekly
N347 Vegetable udon curry
You could also serve this with rice, but if you do, use only half the quantity of dashi, because this curry is made slightly soupier to go with the noodles.
1 mins
January 02, 2026
The Guardian Weekly
Warbling free The app that can tell birds by their songs
When Natasha Walter first became curious about the birds around her, she recorded their songs on her phone and arduously tried to match each song with online recordings.
2 mins
January 02, 2026
The Guardian Weekly
A soundtrack to all of humanity
The Nazis adopted Ode to Joy. Happy Birthday hides a tale of greed. And Putin has turned Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony into a call to arms. Is this the fate of musical utopias?
4 mins
January 02, 2026
The Guardian Weekly
Brigitte Bardot 1934 -2025
France's most sensational cultural export, who on screen epitomised youth, sex and modernity until politics and her campaigns for animal rights took over
3 mins
January 02, 2026
The Guardian Weekly
Who owns space? As the race starts to exploit the cosmos for commercial gains, we must act to preserve it for all humanity
If there is one thing we can rely on in this world, it is human hubris, and space and astronomy are no exception.
3 mins
January 02, 2026
The Guardian Weekly
Food for thought A personally inflected history of psychiatric ideas with flashes of anarchic humour
In 1973, US psychologist David Rosenhan published the results of an experiment.
3 mins
January 02, 2026
Listen
Translate
Change font size