A Difficult Few Days for Bolsonaro’s Right-Wing Movement

Accusations that former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro plotted a coup arose after a former top aide of his was implicated in a plan to kill the current president.

Brazil’s far-right movement and its leader, former President Jair Bolsonaro, have had a challenging few days.

First, a supporter of Mr. Bolsonaro blew himself up near the nation’s Supreme Court, an institution many on the right see as an enemy, in a terrorist attack that the police attributed to political extremism.

Days later, the authorities accused members of an elite military unit — including a former top aide to Mr. Bolsonaro — of planning to kill Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, weeks before he was to become president. The assassination plan, the police said, was printed out in the presidential offices while Mr. Bolsonaro was in the building, according to a police report reviewed by The New York Times.

Now, the police are seeking criminal charges against Mr. Bolsonaro himself, along with three dozen of his allies, over a broad plot to stage a coup to keep him in power after he lost the 2022 presidential election to Mr. Lula.

The dramatic events, which unfolded over the span of eight days, have cast a shadow over a movement that Mr. Bolsonaro mobilized as he rose to power, consolidated as president and continued to nurture following his narrow defeat at the polls.