Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is currently in Florida, where a large contingent of Brazilian expats have settled.

Having arrived on a visa given to him as a head of state, he is here legally. Bolsonaro apparently chose Florida because it has a large Brazilian expat community–mainly people who have been fleeing the unstable politics and Leftward drift of Brazil. As is so often the case in politically unstable countries, there is a brain and wealth drain as people who are able to leave do so.

Brazil, proving that it is the country of the future and always will be, has been in the throes of political upheaval for some time now. The newly installed president is a Leftist crook named Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as “Lula.” While not conceding that he lost fair and square, Bolsonaro acknowledged that the constitutional power would be transferred to Lula, not challenging it.

In other words, he is pretty much like Trump, neither conceding the fairness of the election nor calling for the overthrow of the person who legally was elected. This is not the behavior of a fascist, whatever the Left says. Fascists don’t go to Florida to eat KFC and shop at Publix rather than stay home and seize power.

American Leftists are trying to use Bolsonaro’s arrival in Florida as proof positive that Governor DeSantis is providing a haven for fascist insurrectionists, since their bête noire Donald Trump also lives in the state. Presumably the MSNBC crowd believes that DeSantis should arrest and imprison both men, because that is what a Leftist would do if given the choice.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was apparently in search of somewhere that made him feel more at home. And, these days, no place gives off that dying democracy feel quite like the state of Florida. (via @TheReidOut Blog) https://t.co/I0qKCt4Uld

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 8, 2023

As for the protests themselves, they should hardly be a surprise. The idea that any closely contested election in Latin America would be totally clean is a conceit, not a fact.

The idea that election fraud never ever occurs is a rather new one, basically invented in 2020. Democrats screamed bloody murder about election fraud in 2016 and 2018, and famously throughout George W. Bush’s term we were treated to the “selected not elected” meme. For decades Democrats have been very effective at winning elections in courtrooms, with Marc Elias making a career out of seizing victories out of the jaws of defeat by legal wrangling.

In Brazil many people fear Lula’s return, as he is a far-Left socialist. One of the reasons there are so many Brazilians in Florida is that Lula’s last turn in the presidency was a disaster. There has been a brain drain, and Bolsonaro was elected because a substantial number of Brazilians are done with the Left.

Bolsonaro has condemned the protests, but that of course won’t stop the people calling him a fascist. They do so not because they care a whit about Brazil, but because they want to smear DeSantis.

The insurrection in Brasilia may have been planned in Florida where Bolsanaro now lives (Trump, too, and Balsanaro, a fascist, is a huge Trump fan). https://t.co/qNvpIy9WUk

— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) January 8, 2023

Florida, I mean, fascist coup cesspool, hosts Bolsanaro, Bannon, Trump, Stone, etc. Time to clean that place out. Wake the fuk up Merrick Garland! 🙄

— Amit $8.50 Elon Expert (@MicheladaRevis1) January 8, 2023

Pretty sure the feds have to go through DeSantis to get Bolsanaro, which…..I think that should be different? Right? I mean, we have enough evidence that there was American influence on their insurrection.

And maybe get Cheeto while you're in Florida maybe, guys?

— Emily Wayland ❄️✨ (@weirdgardenerd) January 9, 2023

It is interesting how the US Left has rallied around Lula, given his rather….colorful background. He has been president in Brazil before, pursing Left-wing goals. But he is also pretty clearly corrupt.

In July 2017, Lula was convicted on charges of money laundering and corruption in a controversial trial, and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. The federal judge of the case, Sergio Moro, later became Minister of Justice and Public Security in Bolsonaro’s government.^[18] After an unsuccessful appeal, Lula was arrested in April 2018 and spent 580 days in jail.^[19][20][21] Lula attempted to run in the 2018 Brazilian presidential election but was disqualified under Brazil’s Ficha Limpa law.^[22] In November 2019, the Supreme Federal Court ruled that incarcerations with pending appeals were unlawful and Lula was released from prison as a result.^[23] In March 2021, Supreme Federal Court Justice Edson Fachin ruled that all of Lula’s convictions must be nullified because he was tried by a court that did not have proper jurisdiction over his case.^[24] Fachin’s ruling, which was confirmed by other Supreme Court Justices in April 2021, restored Lula’s political rights.^[25] The Supreme Federal Court ruled later in March 2021 that judge Moro, who oversaw his corruption trial, was biased.^[26] All of the cases Moro had brought against Lula were annulled by 24 June 2021. Following the court ruling, Lula was legally allowed to run for president again in the 2022 elections, and defeated Bolsonaro in the runoff.^[27] He was sworn in on 1 January 2023.^[28][29][30]

I reiterate that I am no expert on Brazilian politics, nor do I want to play one on TV. But I recall the Left’s swoons over Che, Fidel, Daniel Ortega, and Hugo Chavez, so I feel pretty confident that they are on the wrong side of this fight too. Not, I should say, in defending the legitimacy of the election. I would find it utterly unsurprising if Lula won fair and square, and unless it is proven otherwise Lula is the legitimate president.

Even Bolsonaro acknowledges that — which is why he is in Florida. I am not a big fan of coups, even if the current leader is a dunce or corrupt. Usually you get something even worse, having tossed out all legitimacy from the government. If the people chose Lula, a coup would only make things worse. A triumphant return of Bolsonaro would be a disaster.

Yet the Left’s embrace of Lula is just one in a long line of political love affairs with corrupt Leftists who often turn out to be tyrants. Slap a few anti-American sentences together and you can collect every Leftist loon in our country. And Leftist loons always turn out to be disasters, and hardly advocates for peace and prosperity.

Couldn't someone simply gun down Bolsanaro in Florida? People get shot there all the time. It wouldn't really be anything out of the ordinary.

— grodaeu (@grodaeu) January 8, 2023

As for the claims Bolsonaro is plotting all this while he eats KFC in Miami? Other than accusations, the evidence isn’t there. Just as claims of election fraud require proof, claims of coup plotting do too. That is how it works in a legitimate legal system. Instead, though, the Left likes to toss around accusations when they are politically useful. And, frankly, most of the people making this argument really don’t care about Brazil anyway: this is about domestic politics here in America.

The real target here is DeSantis. Florida has a glowing reputation in America right now, and the Left will do anything and say anything to smear that reputation, and by extension Governor DeSantis.

AOC:

Nearly 2 years to the day the US Capitol was attacked by fascists, we see fascist movements abroad attempt to do the same in Brazil.

We must stand in solidarity with @LulaOficial’s democratically elected government. 🇧🇷

The US must cease granting refuge to Bolsonaro in Florida. https://t.co/rzsZl9jwZY

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 8, 2023

VOX senior correspondent:

Usually it’s wrong to interpret foreign events through American analogies, but what’s happening in Brazil is an exception. The far-right there has very explicit and direct links to their American peers; there’s a reason Jair Bolsonaro is currently camped out in Florida

— Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) January 9, 2023

Journalist:

Brazilians in Florida “fangirling” Bolsonaro showing once again that state is the Arkham Asylum for fascist latinos pic.twitter.com/VmL6TDEQl1

— Nathália Urban (@UrbanNathalia) January 1, 2023

NY Times reporter. “fled to Florida (obviously):

Outgoing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has fled to Florida (obvs) and so instead of the traditional handover of power from one president to another, Lula brought representatives of “the people” to invest him – Black, queer, Indigenous etc (good comms team behind this image) pic.twitter.com/Yq78RhuQ4Q

— Stephanie Nolen (@snolen) January 1, 2023

George Washington History professor:

The Bolsonaro coup reveals that we’re facing a GLOBAL fascist movement based in… FLORIDA.

— Dr. William Horne (@wihorne) January 8, 2023

How many of these people know any more about Brazil than I? Maybe one? Their comments are all about smearing Florida and DeSantis, of whom they are scared to death.