Brazilian State Police in late November officially accused former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 others of plotting a coup to keep him in office. The agency outlined a multi-step plan, backed by evidence and evidence, in an 884-page report.
This plan included systematically sowing distrust of the electoral system among the people, drafting a decree to give the building legal status, pressuring military officials to comply with this plan, and removing riots from the capital.
BRAZILIAN CONSERVATIVES LAUD ELON MUSK AT MEETING IN SUPPORT OF BOLSONARO
The General Prosecutor Paulo Gonet will now decide whether to formally charge the defendants, respond to the investigation or ask for more evidence to understand the participation of each person in the different parts of the alleged conspiracy before deciding who will be tried. Bolsonaro and his key allies have denied any wrongdoing or involvement and accused authorities of political persecution.
Former president Jair Bolsonaro arrives to speak to the media after being formally indicted by state police on charges of coup d’état, at the airport in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Here is a breakdown of the program’s key elements as outlined in the report and how they are linked.
Sowing doubts about Brazil’s voting system
Police allege that efforts to spread fake news through Brazil’s electronic voting system began in 2019, Bolsonaro’s first year in office, but were carried out strategically and aggressively as his 2022 re-election bid loomed.
Police said the so-called “digital army” comprised of thousands of social media accounts linked to pro-Bolsonaro propaganda, along with other right-wing activists and prominent politicians, spread propaganda that the voting process could be disrupted. Bolsonaro has also openly expressed his admiration for Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985), which he says saved the country from Communism.
The prospect of defeat in the upcoming illegal election helped Bolsonaro rally tens of thousands of supporters in numerous street protests and mobilized many to set up camps outside the military barracks and headquarters to pressure the leaders.
Three months before the election, Bolsonaro invited a number of politicians to the presidential palace for a nationally televised meeting where he presented the dangers of the voting system, without providing evidence.
After Bolsonaro’s loss in 2022 to the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party questioned the results at the country’s highest electoral court, arguing that voting machines made in some years could have allowed fraud. The election court quickly dismissed the claims.
“They are spreading false studies about the dangers of electronic voting machines through the Liberal Party, in an attempt to create a factual basis for a presidential decision” that could trigger a coup, the report said.
A draft law to set the coup in motion
In January 2023, Brazilian police found a draft declaration at the home of Anderson Torres, former justice minister of Bolsonaro. It was one of many versions written at the behest of the right-wing leader or with his knowledge, police said. The former president presented a document, unsigned, to the commanders of the three military divisions on December 7, seeking their support.
Investigators say the draft law shows that Bolsonaro and his allies want to create a committee to investigate allegations of fraud and crime in the October 2022 vote, in order to eventually suspend the power of the country’s highest electoral court and possibly call new elections.
The navy commander was ready to comply with the decision, but army and air force leaders opposed any plan to block Lula’s inauguration, the report said. That refusal is why the program did not continue, according to witnesses who spoke to investigators.
Many legal experts including evidence that the former president presented a draft to military leaders and supported by various types of documents are very damaging.
“(The aim) was to interfere improperly in the elections,” said Luiz Henrique Machado, a law professor at the IDP university in the capital Brasilia. “In Brazil, it is the electoral prosecutor’s office and the supreme electoral court that have the final say on electoral law.”
In an interview he had with the UOL website published on Thursday, Bolsonaro said that he discussed with the military leaders, including issuing a state of emergency and other alternative measures that would stop the law for the benefit of the public. He said these steps are provided by the constitution, so there is nothing wrong with exploring those options.
“What is being said is absurd. In my opinion, there have never been talks of a coup,” Bolsonaro told reporters in Brasilia on Monday.
Plan to kill the president-elect
On Nov. 19, The Brazilian Federal Police arrested four special military officers and a police officer suspected of plotting in 2022 to kill Lula, vice president-elect Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. These arrested people were all mentioned in the police report which was closed later.
The assassination plan sought to leave Bolsonaro’s ticket as the only one left valid for the 2022 runoff, police said. As for de Moraes, he led a five-year investigation into fake news and threats against Supreme Court judges, which led to some right-wing allies and supporters being banned from social media and arrested. In early 2023, he presided over the country’s highest electoral court when it declared Bolsonaro ineligible for office until 2030 for abuse of power related to a meeting he called with foreign diplomats to spread lies about the voting system.
Gen. Walter Braga Netto, Bolsonaro’s 2022 running mate and former defense minister, revealed the assassination plan in a meeting with conspirators at his home, investigators added. The State Police identified a retired general as one of the leaders of the plot, and who was involved in pressuring the military leaders to sign the coup.
Braga Netto in a statement on Tuesday said that he never formed a coup plot. He added that many of the documents taken from one of his aides, including “documents, documents and press reports” are “materials to prepare to respond to media requests and to prepare testimony in Congressional hearings.”
The police report contains no indication that any attempt was made to kill Lula or Alckmin. However, investigators found messages and documents showing that the conspirators were monitoring and following de Moraes at the time.
Police said they found evidence that retired Brig. Gen. Mário Fernandes, one of the arrested officials who served as interim secretary-general of the presidency, also visited protest camps outside military buildings, including the military headquarters in Brasilia. Investigators said they have evidence that he gave instructions and provided financial support to the protesters.
January 8 uprising
Federal Police have linked Bolsonaro and some of his top ministers to the riots of January 8, 2023 when supporters of the former president, many of whom had camped outside the military headquarters for months, looted the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace in Brasilia.
The protesters had called on the military to prevent the left-wing leader from taking office and their uprising – which erupted after Lula’s swearing-in – was an attempt to force the military to oust the new president, police said.
The riot is seen in the report as one of “other actions to pressure the military commander to join the coup d’etat.” The police also said that Brig. Gen. Fernandes sent a message in November 2022 to Gen. Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, at the time the commander of the Army, discussing the need for a “preliminary event” for the coup.
The defendants, including Bolsonaro, have argued that the protest was an isolated incident, and many legal experts have noted that the report’s evidence linking it to a wider conspiracy is not strong.
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“It is clear that those suspected of attempting to overthrow the government had contact with the people who were camped outside the barracks, the people who were there on Jan. 8. But how much of that contact was transformed into planning, coordination, motivation for those people to take public buildings that day. That will be discussed, will be discussed in this program and the collection of additional evidence, ” said João Pedro Pádua, professor of criminal justice at the Universidade. Federal Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro.
Bolsonaro traveled to the United States days before Lula’s inauguration on Jan. 1, 2023 and stayed there for three months, keeping a low profile. A police report alleges that he was avoiding arrest in connection with a coup plot and waiting for violence to erupt.
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