Brazil marks 2nd anniversary of right-wing coup attempt as Bolsonaro's legal troubles deepen

BY GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA AND MAURICIO SAVARESE
Updated 2:52 PM CST, January 8, 2025



Social movement activists gather at Praça dos Tres Poderes for a pro-democracy event on the second anniversary of the alleged coup attempt when supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro invaded government buildings and called for military intervention in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian authorities gathered in capital Brasilia on Wednesday to mark the second anniversary of an alleged coup attempt by supporters of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was joined by members of his Cabinet, military leaders, four allied governors and four Supreme Court justices — including Alexandre de Moraes, who presides over investigations into the coup attempt — for a ceremony at the presidential palace.

The building was one of those trashed by Bolsonaro supporters in 2023 in a bid to trigger a military intervention that would oust the leftist leader from office.

“Today is the day to say loud and clear: We’re still here,” Lula said at the ceremony, in an apparent reference to the recent blockbuster film — “I’m Still Here” —that addresses the trauma of Brazil’s two-decade dictatorship. “We’re here to say that we are alive and that democracy is alive, contrary to what the January 8, 2023 coup plotters had planned.”

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https://apnews.com/article/brazil-ceremony-coup-attempt-lula-bolsonaro-70487cc29739e9402dae49dd588a0724