On March 4, Brazilians awoke to the news that ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had been forcibly detained and questioned in relation to the corruption scandal embroiling the state petroleum company, Petrobras. Four days later, public prosecutors in São Paulo petitioned judges for the preventative imprisonment of Lula. And on Wednesday, the same day that President Dilma Rousseff announced she was appointing Lula to a ministerial post, a federal judge released bugged phone conversations between the two, aiming to prove the president was attempting to shield Lula from prosecution.

With the economy in free fall and Rousseff facing impeachment for suspect accounting policies, this string of events has heightened the tension among a populace already on edge.

Government supporters say the detainment of Lula, the release of the phone conversations, and the impeachment proceedings against Rousseff represent an affront to democracy. They have raised the specter of a “coup” orchestrated by the judiciary, the corporate media, and the right-wing opposition parties.