US and Brazil on the same path?

After Wellington Luiz Firmino was given a 17-year sentence by Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, for essentially trespassing at a political rally, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green took the opportunity to compare the Biden administration with that of Brazil's socialist president, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva.

Fighting those who fight voter fraud

Like January 6, 2021 protestors in the U.S., those who participated in the January 8, 2023 rally at Brazil's seat of government were demanding that fraudulent votes in their national elections be nullified; thus protesting on an almost identical date for an identical demand.

Selective prosecution

The DOJ has aggressively prosecuted non-violent January 6 protestors, overcharging them in order to coerce guilty pleas even as they dismiss charges against Antifa rioters. Brazil's prosecutors have done the same, with  131 January 8 protestors having been locked up so far.

Firmino is a motorcycle courier who had a clean record prior to receiving the abovementioned 17-year sentence. He continues to maintained his innocence, as seen from machine translation of a statement recorded by Sorocaba E Jundiai:

I've been working since I was 12 years old, I'm a job creator and not a criminal. According to the laws that are being applied to me, a drug dealer or murderer has more rights than me … 

I did not break absolutely anything, quite the contrary, I filmed those who were actually doing any damage to public property. I was condemned by the Supreme Court for reasons without any evidence, with a political bias. [Emphases added.]

The owner of X appears to agree:

Government appeared to condone

In another haunting similarity to January 6, Firmino added that government authorities gave him the impression that he was allowed to be where he was:

I'm innocent, I just exercised my right to raise the flag from my country to the highest point of Brasília, with full permission from the authorities who were there in that place. [Emphasis added.]

Collective punishment

In yet another similarity, Brazilian authorities prosecuted defendants not just for trespass but also for supposedly supporting the violent acts of some of the thousands of other protestors. In Firmino's case, he was punished for “celebrating” the acts of other protestors, as the rapporteur of the case pleaded to the court:

Although the defense claims that the defendant's entry into the National Congress took place for tourism, what can be observed is that the defendant adopted an intense stance of celebration for the 'taking over' of the building. [Emphasis added.]

Candidates of the elite

Turning to the leaders behind the prosecutions, they share a similarity beyond their Left-leaning policies. Like Joe Biden, Lula da Silva is backed by his nation's elite, as Fox News reported:

Who is Brazil's socialist, ex-con candidate for president?

. . . Tiago Cortez, a political adviser for Brazil's Republican Party … made the point that Lula is very popular in elite circles: "Lula is greatly favored by the media, the artistic class and part of the business community, which spent a decade getting favorable treatment through the National Development Bank. These are sectors that end up making a great financial and media contribution" to his campaign. [Emphasis added.]

Persecuting opponents

Biden and Lula share more similarities, including their attempts to keep from the public the details of law enforcement activities that day (possibly including whether police were told to stand down, to not block trespass, or even to riot while dressed as protestors) and their criminal prosecutions of the very political opponents for whom the protestors were rallying. 

The defendant describes his persecution

Firmino may be seen in the below video, with an option for automated subtitles in English, defending his actions.

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