Former President Jair Bolsonaro said he’ll end his extended U.S. vacation at the end of March to return to Brazil, where he’ll face a dozen criminal investigations involving allegations of corruption and fomenting anti-democratic acts.
Bolsonaro said in a video released late Thursday that he’ll fight for the conservative cause with his Liberal Party and “return to normal activity” in politics in the nation’s capital. A flight “is pre-scheduled to land in Brasilia at 7 a.m. on March 30,” he told reporters. “It’s almost certain.”
The head of Bolsonaro’s party confirmed the information in a Twitter post on Friday. Bolsonaro will land when his chief rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is expected to be out of the country in an official trip to China.
The conservative leader has been holed up near Orlando, Florida, since late December after losing reelection to Lula. Bolsonaro has never formally conceded defeat. When and if he goes back to his country has been the subject of much speculation after his supporters vandalized buildings of the country’s main democratic institutions in Brasilia, alleging electoral fraud.
Hundreds have been arrested for taking part the Jan. 8 riots, and the Supreme Court is currently probing whether Bolsonaro had any responsibility for the violence. He denies wrongdoing.
The 67-year-old former army captain is facing an array of other investigations including allegedly spreading falsities about Brazil’s electronic voting system as well as unproven side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.
(With assistance from Guilherme Bento and Daniel Carvalho.)
