Argentina grants asylum to Brasília rioter in move that may sway Brazil vote

Argentina has granted asylum to a Brazilian fugitive convicted for his role in 2023 pro-Bolsonaro riots – a decision that analysts say could reverberate in Brazil’s upcoming presidential election. A week after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, took office, hundreds of people ransacked Brazil’s congress building, presidential palace and supreme court on 8 January 2023, in an attempt to overturn former president Jair Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat. Investigators later concluded the attacks were the culmination of a broader plot aimed at staging a coup. Alongside Bolsonaro and members of his inner circle, who were convicted for their role in the plot, hundreds of rioters were given sentences of up to 17 years in prison for vandalism and insurrection. Dozens fled to Argentina after Javier Milei, a rightwing libertarian, took office in December 2023. In 2024, Brazil requested the extradition of 61 of its citizens. Argentine federal police arrested five of them, and in December, a federal judge ordered their extradition.But this week, one of them – Joel Borges Correa, 47, was informed that Argentina’s refugee commission (Conare) – which operates under the security ministry – ruled that he should be granted asylum. Borges Correa had applied for asylum in 2024, one of 196 Brazilians who sought refugee status in Argentina that year, according to official data. In his testimony, he said he had gone to the government buildings carrying a Brazilian flag to protest against “Lula’s projects in favour of abortion and the legalisation of drugs” – policies that have not been enacted. He was arrested inside the Planalto presidential palace, the president’s official workplace, and later sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison. In April 2024, attempting to avoid arrest, Borges Correa cut off his ankle monitor and drove to the Argentine border with three other convicted fugitives. Conare concluded that Borges Correa faced discrimination and persecution because of his political opinions, which it said could be “inferred from his participation in the mobilisation on 8 January”, and that the “Brazilian state is the main persecuting agent”. “There is a very evident human rights issue, a matter of political persecution,” said Pedro Gradin, Borges Correa’s lawyer. “With asylum granted, he will regularise his immigration status. Now they must release him and remove his ankle monitor so that he can live his life like any other citizen.”The decision suggests that other fugitives will be successful in their request for asylum. In a video posted on social media, national deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro – one of Jair Bolsonaro’s sons – celebrated the ruling as a “victory of freedom” and thanked Milei.“It’s impossible that these people could have carried out a coup d’état without weapons, without anything, on a January Sunday, when everyone knows it was vacation time in Brazil,” he said, claiming, spuriously, that his father, who fled the country to avoid handing over power to Lula, had been at Disney World.The decision is understood to have come as a surprise to Brazilian authorities. “The Milei administration is starting to get involved in Brazil’s elections,” said a source in the Brazilian government who asked not to be named.“Brazil is about to begin its election campaign, and this year’s election will be more difficult for President Lula than it seemed a few months ago,” said Maurício Santoro, a political scientist and professor of international relations. Brazil’s presidential election is in October, and the opposition candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro – another son of the former president – is currently rising in the polls. “There is a real possibility that [Bolsonaro] could win. And that changes the political calculations of Milei’s government.” Santoro added that, with conservative leaders recently elected in neighbouring countries, Milei may see an opportunity to “cause a political problem for Lula”. Santoro, said the Brazilian opposition, which has pushed for an amnesty for Bolsonaro and others involved in the 8 January riots, may now point to Borges Correa’s asylum case as evidence that the events were not a coup attempt.“I think it will become an important issue for the opposition during the election campaign,” he said.