Bolsonaro says he’s planning return to Brazil

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he may return to the country in the coming weeks, after spending more than a month in the U.S. following the end of his presidential term in late December 2022.

The former right-wing president told a crowd of supporters at an event at an evangelical church in Florida that he is planning on returning to Brazil “in the following weeks,” according to The Associated Press. 

But Bolsonaro is the subject of a number of investigations stemming from his time in power, and his supporters rioted in the capital city of Brasília last month as he watched on from the U.S.

Bolsonaro has long shed doubt about the integrity of Brazil’s elections and has refused to fully concede to now-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is a darling of the global left.

Representatives for Bolsonaro recently told The Hill that he had applied for a tourist visa in the U.S., signaling he was potentially planning on prolonging his stay.

His time in the U.S. has been met with resistance from progressives in Congress, who have called on the government to get Bolsonaro out of the country. But the White House has maintained that it has not received any requests from the Brazilian government regarding Bolsonaro.

The news of Bolsonaro’s planned return to Brazil comes after Lula visited President Biden and other Democrats in Washington earlier this week, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)