BRASLIA – Brazil’s Senate on Wednesday (Thursday, Manila time) passed a bill to slash the prison term of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of plotting a coup after losing reelection to left-winger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Passed by the lower chamber last week, the bill now heads to Lula, whose expected veto could eventually be overridden by Congress.
Bolsonaro, 70, began a 27-year prison sentence in November, and under current rules was expected to serve at least eight years behind bars before becoming eligible for a looser regime.
The new legislation, which changes how sentences are calculated for certain crimes, could, however, see Bolsonaro serve a little over two years in prison.
Following months of jockeying by Bolsonaro’s supporters in Congress for some sort of amnesty, the bill moved surprisingly quickly through both the conservative-controlled lower chamber and the more balanced Senate.
Bolsonaro’s oldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro — whom the former president anointed as the candidate of the right in 2026 elections — said in a video “it wasn’t what we were fighting for, but it’s what was possible at this juncture.”
The bill provoked protests in cities across Brazil on Sunday, where demonstrators chanted “no amnesty” and held up banners reading: “Congress, enemy of the people.”
Though political forces are more evenly balanced in the Senate, it was approved 48-25.
