Lula is right — and street mobilizations across the country show public support for the veto. It's outrageous that lawmakers have approved a bill that grants disguised amnesty to coup plotters who sought to overthrow the government and abolish the democratic rule of law in the country in a backroom deal that betrays democratic values enshrined in the constitution.

This bill creates nothing new and merely returns power to the same Supreme Court that committed the abuses in the first place. Existing mechanisms for sentence reduction were deliberately ignored, — making this legislation a facade that legitimizes political persecution and abandons thousands of families destroyed by the system.