Bolsonaro finds a new home in Florida

As Brazil lives in the aftermath of mobs breaking into the main seats of power, its former president has moved to a Florida resort, where a crowd of supporters turned out to cheer him on.

Jair Bolsonaro devotees have traveled in recent days to the former president’s temporary home, a gated community with water slides, for a chance to see him. Bolsonaro signed autographs, hugged children and took selfies with the adoring masses, some wearing “Make Brazil Great Again” T-shirts.

“I will always support yousaid Rafael Silva, 31, who left Brazil eight years ago and is now setting up flats in central Florida, where he stood outside Bolsonaro’s rental home on Monday. “He was the best for the country.”

In the early afternoon, the handful of yellow-shirted supporters dissipated as word spread that Bolsonaro was hospitalized with abdominal pain. His wife, Michelle, said on social media that he had been hospitalized for observation due to abdominal discomfort related to the stabbing he suffered in 2018, which has led to multiple hospitalizations in the past. A photo published by the Brazilian newspaper O Globo showed him smiling from his hospital bed. A hospital spokesman did not immediately respond to a phone call and text message.

Before mobs stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace on Sunday, Bolsonaro had been seen repeatedly in this central Florida community, wandering the aisles of a Publix supermarket, dining alone in a Local KFC and most of all surrounded by fans.

Although Osceola County police said they received a request from the Secret Service to provide Bolsonaro with a police escort when he arrived and he was still a sitting president, he has not been surrounded by a notable group of security.

“He will feel at home in Florida’s right-wing ecosystem of scams and podcasting, finding allies with anyone who thinks they can use him to further their far-right agenda.said Andy Reiter, a professor of politics and international relations at Mount Holyoke College who has investigated foreign leaders.

Their new home, Encore Resort at Reunion, in suburban Orlando, is made up of rental houses furnished with foosball tables, screening rooms, Disney décor on the walls and Mickey Mouse stuffed animals on the beds.

If the sight of the former president of one of the world’s greatest countries wandering through a gated community a stone’s throw from Walt Disney World in shorts seems strange, take a look at history.

Over the past half century, a series of rulers in the region have called this state their home, at least for a while, from Haiti’s Prosper Avril to Nicaragua’s Anastasio Somoza to Panama’s Manuel Noriega. Along with a list of other Latin American notables, they have lived in both modest homes and elaborate mansions and, in Noriega’s case, in a Miami prison cell where he spent 17 years on drug charges.

Asked by reporters Monday if the United States would send Bolsonaro back to Brazil, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration had not received any requests from Brazil related to the former president.

Brazil’s Justice Minister Flavio Dino told reporters that, at the moment, Brazil had no plans to ask the United States for Bolsonaro’s extradition.

Source: Associated Press