Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Brazilian authorities indict former President Jair Bolsonaro, Argentine President Javier Milei promotes a short-lived memecoin, and Chilean programmers build a Latin American AI model.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Brazilian authorities indict former President Jair Bolsonaro, Argentine President Javier Milei promotes a short-lived memecoin, and Chilean programmers build a Latin American AI model.

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On Tuesday, Brazil’s attorney general charged former President Jair Bolsonaro and 33 others with plotting to disrupt and overturn the results of Brazil’s 2022 election, saying their scheme included plans to kill the winner of the vote, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The 272-page indictment builds on recommendations from a police investigation published last November. The case now goes to Brazil’s Supreme Court, which will determine whether to accept the charges and begin a trial. If convicted, Bolsonaro could face at least 12 years in prison.

The indictment described plans for annulling election results after Lula won; arresting top judges and empowering the military; and assassinating Lula, Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes in the run-up to Lula’s inauguration on Jan. 1, 2023.

Those plans did not come to fruition. But other actions described in the charges did, including Bolsonaro’s efforts to cast doubt on the reliability of Brazil’s electronic voting machines, blitzes carried out by the federal highway police that slowed voters on their way to the polls, and Bolsonaro allies coaxing supporters to storm the capital complex in Brasília.

The indictment cited documents and text messages from the alleged co-conspirators, as well as witness testimony. Bolsonaro has denied the charges, saying they were an attempt to sabotage his political movement.

The indictment may be a watershed moment in Brazilian politics. If the accusations against Bolsonaro and his allies are true, Brazil has survived a brush with potential military........

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