Bolsonaro returns to Brazil for first time since election loss
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Brazil's ex-president Jair Bolsonaro has returned in Brazil to reenter politics despite facing legal trouble on various fronts in the country.
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Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro waves to supporters at the Liberal Party's headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, March 30, 2023 (AP)
Brazil's ex-president Jair Bolsonaro arrived Thursday in Brazil to reenter politics, which would complicate his leftist successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's life.
Bolsonaro returned home despite facing legal trouble on various fronts in Brazil -- notably for his alleged role in inciting supporters who rioted through the halls of power on January 8 in a failed bid to oust Lula, the veteran leftist who beat him in a divisive election in October.
Authorities vowed to block supporters from holding a huge welcome rally at the airport. However, scores of backers managed to be at the arrival area to welcome him, waved the Brazilian flag, shouted and sang the national anthem.
Read: Lula accuses Bolsonaro of preparing January 8 attempted 'coup'
"We've been waiting for this moment for a long time. We've been looking forward to it since January 1," 46-year-old Eva Melgaco, told AFP.
However, Bolsonaro left quietly through a different exit. As he entered a police-escorted motorcade that took him to the Liberal Party's headquarters, he flashed a thumbs-up to TV cameras.
Bolsonaro, 68, is set to start a new job next week as honorary president of his Liberal Party (PL), earning 41,600 reais (around $8,000) a month.
The ex-President who recently rented a house in a gated community in Brasilia said he plans to crisscross Brazil "doing politics" and "upholding the banner of conservatism."
But "I'm not going to lead any opposition," Bolsonaro told CNN Brasil as he prepared to board his flight.
"I'm going to participate with my party as someone with experience," he added.
Bolsonaro's return set to unite the right
The Liberal Party appeared ready to keep the arrival low-key, saying Bolsonaro would travel from the airport to party headquarters, where his wife, party president Valdemar Costa Neto and "other authorities" would be waiting to welcome him in a closed-door event.
But hardline Bolsonaro supporters had issued calls on social media to turn out en masse to welcome the man they call "Messiah" -- or "Messias," Bolsonaro's middle name.
The homecoming could reenergize the opposition, which has been weakened by Bolsonaro's self-imposed exile and the widespread backlash to the violence and destruction of the January 8 riots, when supporters trashed the presidential palace, Congress, and the Supreme Court.
"We've had five months of a basically dismantled opposition. Now, Bolsonaro's return to Brazil looks set to unite the right," political analyst Jairo Nicolau told AFP.
"That could make a big difference. Lula will have to govern with a united opposition."
Legal trouble
But Bolsonaro faces numerous legal woes. They include no less than five Supreme Court investigations that could potentially send him to jail -- including for allegedly inciting the January 8 riots -- and a recent scandal over allegations he tried to illegally import and keep millions of dollars worth of jewelry given to him and his wife by Saudi Arabia in 2019.
Police summoned Bolsonaro on Wednesday to give a deposition in the Saudi jewels case on April 5, officials told AFP.
He also faces 16 cases before Brazil's Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which could strip him of his right to run for office for eight years, taking him out of the 2026 presidential race.
Bolsonaro has admitted he could face trouble. Assessing his odds at a meeting with Brazilian business leaders in the United States earlier this month, he acknowledged that he could be declared ineligible to run for office.
"But they won't send me to prison unless there's some kind of arbitrary decision," he said.
