A series of setbacks for Brazil's far right over the last week is beginning to cause their hopes for amnesty for former president Jair Bolsonaro to fade. Our correspondent Brian Mier has more.
00:00A series of setbacks for Brazil's far-right over the last week is begging to cause their hopes for amnesty for former President Jair Bolsonaro to fade.
00:09Our correspondent, Brian Meir, has more.
00:1417. The lower house of Brazil's Congress voted to fast-track a constitutional amendment that, if ratified,
00:22promised to grant amnesty for far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro and his seven cronies,
00:28who were just sentenced by the Supreme Court to terms from 2 to 27 years behind bars for attempting to implement a military coup.
00:40There are moments in history when you have to have firm convictions.
00:45You who have voted for this amendment are damaging your own biographies.
00:50You all know that during a certain moment in history, there were people who thought it would be possible to pacify Europe with Hitler.
00:58One week later, it looks like the move, which was initiated by Bolsonaro's Liberal Party, is already running out of steam.
01:11On Sunday, Brazil's unions and social movements came out to the streets of dozens of cities to protest the bill,
01:17along with another one which would make it harder to convict corrupt politicians.
01:21One day later, the congressman tasked with preparing the measure for a floor vote, removed the word amnesty completely from the project.
01:30My draft will only include sentence reduction.
01:32This is what we are going to do.
01:34We want to reduce them based on articles in the law.
01:36We are calling this sentencing mitigation, not amnesty, because we want to reduce sentences.
01:41The Supreme Court will make the final decision.
01:43But our role is to try to reduce sentences.
01:45Then, a dagger was struck into the heart of the Brazilian far-right as their hero, Donald Trump, met with President Lula at the UN General Assembly,
01:55then said during his speech that he seemed like a very nice man and that they had agreed to continue dialogue.
02:01There is no more mood for political amnesty in Brazil.
02:07Basically, it's because President Lula's participation on General Assembly was viewed as very positive,
02:12and, more importantly, because of his brief meeting with President Trump,
02:16after which both leaders said they had excellent chemistry.
02:19The US president will take the pragmatic step of starting negotiations with the Brazilian president,
02:24and obviously the US has a lot of business interests in Brazil.
02:27Bolsonaro, who has already been convicted, will be completely forgotten.
02:34As the events of last week showed, things can change quickly in the world of politics.
02:40Now many are wondering if it's only a matter of time before the US removes its tariff on Brazilian coffee.
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