00:00Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's son Eduardo shocked the nation recently when
00:05he announced he was stepping down from Congress to live in the United States,
00:09but what is he doing up there? Our correspondent Brian Mears has the details.
00:16Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, surprised colleagues from his liberal
00:22party last week when he announced on social media that he was taking a leave of absence from
00:27Congress and had fled Brazil out of fear that the federal police were going to confiscate
00:31his passport. The police later announced he's not under investigation for anything.
00:38Eduardo Bolsonaro fled to the US.
00:42This is what happened. He's become a prisoner of his own fake news.
00:47He said that had to leave because there is a judicial dictatorship in Brazil.
00:52But first of all, he's preparing an escape route for his dad. Second, he and his father
00:58want to convince the US to refuse to recognize upcoming democratic elections in Brazil.
01:05For years, Eduardo Bolsonaro has served as the primary intermediary between the Bolsonaro family
01:10and its allies with the international far right. He's credited with bringing the Conservative
01:16Political Action Congress, or CPAC, to Brazil, and many analysts suspect he's going to use his
01:22time in the US to strengthen his family's relationship with the Trump administration.
01:27I believe that the plan behind Eduardo Bolsonaro's flight to the United States
01:31and his leave of absence from Congress is to strengthen a future scenario in which he can
01:36run for president. The international far right is already working towards this.
01:41Republican party lawmakers and their allies in the media have been pushing for the Trump
01:46administration to issue sanctions against the individual Supreme Court justices responsible
01:51for the investigation against Jair Bolsonaro. But if Eduardo jumps into the fray during
01:56his time in the US, he could end up with his own legal problems.
02:03If he convinces foreign groups to intervene in Brazil's democratic rule of law,
02:08to violate Brazil's territorial integrity,
02:11independence, or sovereignty, this can represent the crime of an attack against sovereignty,
02:18according to the terms and conditions of article 359 of our criminal code.
02:26Eduardo Bolsonaro recently told the press that he's working for electoral freedom in Brazil,
02:31in the United States. As he's still an elected official, this puts him on legal shaky ground.
02:37Brian Muir, TELUS Sir, Recife.
Comments