Late last year,
Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison
for plotting a military coup to keep himself in office.
after he lost an election.
Bolsonaro was often called the Trump of the Tropics.
He was a populist, a nationalist, with anti-democratic impulses, an itchy trigger finger on Twitter,
and maybe most importantly, about half his country firmly behind him.
During Bolsonaro's trial, Trump tried to downplay any comparison.
He's not like a friend of mine.
He's somebody that I know.
Somebody!
But he wasn't entirely successful.
And he loves the country, and he fought hard for those people, and they want to put them in jail.
And I think that's a witch hunt, and I think it's very unfortunate.
With Bolsonaro behind bars now,
people who study democracy are asking whether what happened in his country holds any lessons for these United States.
Coming up on Today Explained, we're going to Brazil.
I got in the water in the very early morning before the sun had risen and the water was pitch black.
I started swimming and I felt the water hollowing out around me and felt like something really big was swimming below.
I'm Phoebe Judge and this is Love.