Brazil vs. US: Two insurrections, different results

On January 8, 2023, thousands of supporters of Brazil’s right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed federal buildings in the country’s capital. Their goal? Overthrow the results of an election they claimed was rigged, despite no credible evidence of fraud. 

If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Brazil’s January 8 looked a lot like the January 6 attack on the US capital, just two years earlier: mob violence, an insurrection, and a defeated leader who refused to concede.

But the aftermath could not be more different. Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year prison sentence, while Donald Trump is president, again. 

So how did two democracies, facing similar threats, end up with such different outcomes? This video explains how Brazil’s democratic system worked to hold “the Trump of the Tropics” accountable and what the United States could learn from the aftermath.

Read more about Brazil’s response:

• Vox correspondent Zack Beauchamp’s deep dive into what Brazil got right: How one country stopped a Trump-style authoritarian in his tracks

• The Brazilian Report breaks down the details of Bolsonaro’s coup plans: Anatomy of a coup attempt

• Carnegie Endowment’s podcast, The World Unpacked, breaks down the trial and conviction of former Bolsonaro: Did the Bolsonaro Trial Really Save Brazil’s Democracy?

• The New Yorker’s excellent profile of Alexandre de Moraes includes a lot more detail on how the judge became an enemy of Trump and Elon Musk, in his mission to crack down on election misinformation: The Brazilian judge Taking on the digital far right

• A New York Times opinion piece, co-written by Filipe Campante, who is featured in the video: Brazil just succeeded where America failed

• The Economist’s take on how countries recover from populism: Brazil offers America a lesson in democratic maturity 

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This story was supported by a grant from Protect Democracy. Vox had full discretion over the content of this reporting.