Sentenced for writing “Perdeu, otário” in lipstick during protests against the unelected regime backed by Brazil’s Supreme Court…
A woman in Brazil has been sentenced to fourteen years in prison for writing on a statue with lipstick during protests in the capital last year. Thirty-nine-year-old Débora Rodrigues was convicted of participating in what authorities described as an attempt to overthrow the current regime—one widely viewed by critics as installed through judicial intervention rather than democratic elections.

Rodrigues joined demonstrations in support of former president Jair Bolsonaro after his contested defeat, which many allege was not the result of fair and free voting, but a judicial power move led by the president of Brazil’s Supreme Court. During the protest, she wrote the phrase “You lost, idiot” (“Perdeu, otário”) on a public statue — a non-violent and impulsive act for which she later expressed regret.

Despite her apology and lack of violent involvement, Rodrigues was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. The sentence has been denounced by observers as excessive, imposed not for the message’s content, but because it directly challenged the authority of Supreme Court President Luís Roberto Barroso, widely seen as the central figure in Brazil’s current power structure.

Though Brazil is officially classified as a democracy, growing concerns point to a system increasingly dominated by judicial control. Under Barroso’s leadership, the Supreme Court has been accused of politically biased rulings that remove democratically elected candidates in favor of those aligned with the court’s interests—even when those candidates lose at the ballot box.