The judicial triumph in Brasilia will test the democratic resilience of Latin America’s largest country, four decades after the overthrow of the military dictatorship. The Supreme Court’s conviction last Thursday of Brazil’s far-right former president, Jair Bolsonaro, handing down a 27-year prison sentence, will potentially escalate the open confrontation between Brasilia and Washington.

President Donald Trump has never concealed his opposition to the beleaguered leader’s trial, which he once said was like his own legal battle, dubbed the case a “witch hunt”, and in a letter to the current third-term President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called the criminal proceedings against Bolsonaro an international disgrace.

The high-profile case was in connection with the........

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