Supporters of Brazil’s Bolsonaro protest on Copacabana Beach to defend him after coup charges

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Thousands of backers of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro poured onto Copacabana Beach on Sunday to express their support for the far-right politician as he faces charges he plotted a coup.

Bolsonaro and close allies attended the demonstration in which protesters also called for Congress to grant amnesty to those in jail for their roles in the Jan. 8, 2023 riot, when government buildings in the capital Brasilia were ransacked.

A sea of people wearing Brazil’s yellow-and-green national soccer jersey chanted and held placards reading “Amnesty, now!” Local media reported that around 18,000 people attended, based on figures from a monitoring project linked to the University of Sao Paulo. Bolsonaro's allies had hoped to draw a crowd of 1 million.

Copacabana has regularly been the site for rallies called by Bolsonaro at times when he has sought to demonstrate his political strength.

Last month, Brazil ’s prosecutor-general formally charged Bolsonaro with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Part of that plot allegedly included plans to poison Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees several cases against him.

After losing to Lula, Bolsonaro refused to concede, and left for the United States days before the end of his term.

Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing and has said he is a victim of political persecution. His defense is seeking to send the case to the full Supreme Court, where Bolsonaro appointed two of its 11 justices.

If convicted, the former president could be sentenced to decades behind bars.

Speaking at the demonstration, Bolsonaro again refuted the accusations.

“Nobody buys that story. The only reason this coup story wasn’t perfect for them was because I was in the United States. If I’d been here, I’d still be in prison, or maybe killed by them. I’m going to be a problem for them, in prison or dead,” he said.

The pro-Bolsonaro demonstration took place nine days before a panel of five of Brazil’s 11 Supreme Court justices will gather in Brasilia to decide whether the former president and several of his allies will stand trial on five counts.

Ahead of the march, his son Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro sought to rally the troops. “The hundreds of political prisoners and persecuted people need all of us more than ever,” he said in a video posted on social media on March 9.

That was a reference to the more than 400 people convicted for their roles in the Jan. 8 riot, when Bolsonaro’s die-hard fans stormed and trashed the Supreme Court, Presidential Palace and Congress a week after Lula took office.

In his indictment of Bolsonaro and 33 others linked to him, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet said the rampage was a last-ditch attempt to hold onto power.

Paulo Henrique Cassimiro, a political scientist at Rio de Janeiro State University, said Bolsonaro was trying to portray himself and those in jail as innocent patriots before the Supreme Court decides whether to accept the charges.

“If he strengthens himself politically, (Brazil's Congress) could potentially grant him amnesty in the event of a conviction,” Cassimiro said. But the low turnout at the rally shows that his clout has diminished, he added.

Thiago Bottino, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, said it was likely the charges would be accepted.

“What you need to start a trial is different from what you need to convict someone. There are enough elements,” Bottino said, citing seized documents, statements from witnesses and large quantities of messages exchanged.

Cassiane Sousa, a 25-year-old student, said she attended the protest to show that Bolsonaro's movement still has strength despite his legal troubles.

“We’re here because we still have hope, otherwise we’d just stay home,” she said.

A supporter of former President Jair Bolsonaro, dressed as Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, takes part in a rally on Copacabana Beach in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro arrives at a rally on Copacabana Beach in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro hold up posters and flags in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro take part in a rally on Copacabana Beach in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

A supporter of former President Jair Bolsonaro holds up a sign that reads in Portuguese "Amnesty Now," during a rally on Copacabana Beach in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro greets supporters after a rally on Copacabana Beach in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro take part in a rally on Copacabana Beach in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Former President Jair Bolsonaro holds a rally on Copacabana Beach in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro take part in a rally on Copacabana Beach in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro gestures to the crowd upon arriving at a rally on Copacabana Beach in support of a proposed bill to grant amnesty to those arrested for storming government buildings in an alleged coup attempt in 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

A federal judge on Monday questioned whether the Trump administration ignored his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador in possible violation of an decision he'd issued minutes before.

District Judge James E. Boasberg was incredulous over the administration's contentions that his verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed, that it couldn't apply to flights outside the U.S. and that they could not answer his questions about the trips due to national security issues.

“That's one heck of a stretch, I think,” Boasberg replied, noting that the administration knew as the planes were departing that he was holding a hearing on whether to briefly halt deportations being made under a rarely used 18th century law invoked by Trump about an hour earlier.

“I’m just asking how you think my equitable powers do not attach to a plane that has departed the U.S., even if it’s in international airspace,” Boasberg added at another point.

Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli contended that only Boasberg’s short written order, issued about 45 minutes after he made the verbal demand, counted. It did not contain any demands to reverse planes, and Kambly added that it was too late to redirect two planes that had left the U.S. by that time.

“These are sensitive, operational tasks of national security,” Kambli said.

The hearing over what Boasberg called the “possible defiance” of his court order marked the latest step in a high-stakes legal fight that began when President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 wartime law to remove immigrants over the weekend. It was also an escalation in the battle over whether the Trump administration is flouting court orders that have blocked some of his aggressive moves in the opening weeks of his second term.

“There’s been a lot of talk about constitutional crisis, people throw that word around. I think we’re getting very close to it,” warned Lee Gelernt of the ACLU, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, during the Monday hearing. After the hearing, Gelernt said the ACLU would ask Boasberg to order all improperly deported people returned to the United States.

Boasberg said he'd record the proceedings and additional demands in writing. “I will memorialize this in a written order since apparently my oral orders don’t seem to carry much weight,” Boasberg said.

On Saturday night, Boasberg ordered the administration not to deport anyone in its custody over the newly-invoked Alien Enemies Act, which has only been used three times before in U.S. history, all during congressionally declared wars. Trump issued a proclamation that the law was newly in effect due to what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Trump's invocation of the act could allow him to deport any noncitizen he says is associated with the gang, without offering proof or even publicly identifying them. The plaintiffs filed their suit on behalf of several Venezuelans in U.S. custody who feared they'd be falsely accused of being Tren de Aragua members and improperly removed from the country.

Told there were planes in the air headed to El Salvador, which has agreed to house deported migrants in a notorious prison, Boasberg said Saturday evening that he and the government needed to move fast. “You shall inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg told the government's lawyer.

According to the filing, two planes that had taken off from Texas' detention facility when the hearing started more than an hour earlier were in the air at that point, and they apparently continued to El Salvador. A third plane apparently took off after the hearing and Boasberg's written order was formally published at 7:26 p.m. Eastern time. Kambli said that plane held no one deported under the Alien Enemies Act.

El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele, on Sunday morning tweeted, “Oopsie...too late" above an article referencing Boasberg's order and announced that more than 200 deportees had arrived in his country. The White House communications director, Steven Cheung, reposted Bukele's post with an admiring GIF.

Later Sunday, a widely circulated article in Axios said the administration decided to “defy” the order and quoted anonymous officials who said they concluded it didn't extend to planes outside U.S. airspace. That drew a quick denial from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said in a statement “the administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order.”

Leavitt also stated the administration believed the order was not “lawful” and it was being appealed. The administration argues a federal judge does not have the authority to tell the president whether he can determine the country is being invaded under the act, or how to defend it.

The Department of Justice also filed a statement in the lawsuit saying that some people who were “not in United States territory” at the time of the order had been deported and that, if its appeal was unsuccessful, it wouldn't use Trump's proclamation as grounds for further deportations.

After Boasberg scheduled a hearing Monday and said the government should be prepared to answer questions over its conduct, the Justice Department objected, saying it could not answer in a public forum because it involved “sensitive questions of national security, foreign relations, and coordination with foreign nations.” Boasberg denied the government's request to cancel the hearing, which led the Trump administration to ask that the judge be taken off the case.

Kambli stressed that the government believes it is complying with Boasberg's order. It has said in writing it will not use Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport anyone if Boasberg's order is not overturned on appeal, a pledge Kambli made again verbally in court Monday. "None of this is necessary because we did comply with the court’s written order,” Kambli said.

Boasberg's temporary restraining order is only in effect for up to 14 days as he oversees the litigation over Trump's unprecedented use of the act, which is likely to raise new constitutional issues that can only ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. He had scheduled a hearing Friday for further arguments, but the two organizations that filed the initial lawsuit, the ACLU and Democracy Forward, urged him to force the administration to explain in a declaration under oath what happened.

The government's statements, the plaintiffs wrote, “strongly suggests that the government has chosen to treat this Court’s Order as applying only to individuals still on U.S. soil or on flights that had yet to clear U.S. airspace as of 7:26pm (the time of the written Order).”

“If that is how the government proceeded, it was a blatant violation of the Court’s Order,” they added.

As the courtroom drama built, so did international fallout over the deportations to El Salvador. Venezuela’s government on Monday characterized the transfer of migrants to El Salvador as “kidnappings” that it plans to challenge as “crimes against humanity” before the United Nations and other international organizations. It also accused the Central American nation of profiting off the plights of Venezuelan migrants.

“They are not detaining them, they are kidnapping them and expelling them,” Jorge Rodriguez, President Nicolas Maduro’s chief negotiator with the U.S., told reporters Monday.

Trump's proclamation alleges Tren de Aragua is acting as a “hybrid criminal state” in partnership with Venezuela.

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Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela. Michael Kunzelman in Washington, D.C., and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks along the southern border with Mexico, on Aug. 22, 2024, in Sierra Vista, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP)

In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, a prison guard transfers deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP)