(Brasilia) Jair Bolsonaro “actively participated” in a planned coup d’état to stay in power in 2022 and was “fully aware” of a plan to assassinate his successor Lula, according to a damning police report for the far-right ex-president.
Posted at 3:17 p.m.
Updated at 4:51 p.m.
This 884-page report was sent on Tuesday to the office of the public prosecutor Paulo Gonet, who must now decide whether to follow up on the Federal Police’s request for indictments against Mr. Bolsonaro and 36 other people, including military.
“The evidence obtained throughout the investigations showed unequivocally that Jair Bolsonaro planned […] and took a direct and effective part in the actions of a criminal organization whose objective was a coup d’état which did not take place due to circumstances going against his will,” details the police report.
According to investigators, the coup plan “failed” due to a lack of support from top commanders in the Brazilian army.
Jair Bolsonaro, 69, has always proclaimed his innocence and has repeatedly said he is a victim of “political persecution”.
“The term ‘coup’ has never been part of my lexicon,” he said at a news conference Monday.
But investigators assure that Mr. Bolsonaro was “fully aware” and had “actively participated” in “clandestine acts aimed at abolishing the democratic rule of law”.
According to the report, the former head of state was also “fully aware” of the “Green and Yellow Dagger” operation which aimed to assassinate Lula, his vice-president designate Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes after the failure of the far-right leader in his attempt at re-election against the current left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula won by a narrow margin in the second round at the end of October 2022 and started on 1is January 2023 his third term, after a first stint as president from 2003 to 2010.
Brasilia riots
Last week, a police operation linked to this vast investigation resulted in the arrest of four soldiers and a police officer, suspected of having fomented the triple assassination plan, which was to be carried out before Lula’s inauguration. .
According to investigators, a document detailing the modus operandi, which cited poisoning among the methods considered, was printed by one of the suspects at the Planalto Presidential Palace.
“I must be very grateful since I am alive. The attempt to poison me and Alckmin did not work,” Lula declared last Thursday during an official ceremony.
But the Federal Police believe that the desires of the ex-far-right president and his close collaborators were highlighted well before the 2022 election.
The investigation report mentions in particular a meeting on July 5 of that year, in the presence of Mr. Bolsonaro, where it was a question of “disseminating knowingly untrue information” aimed at discrediting the system of electronic ballot boxes used during Brazilian elections.
The Federal Police also report the “participation of Jair Bolsonaro” in the development of a draft decree aimed at calling new elections and arresting Judge Moraes, president of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) during the presidential election. .
The coup ultimately did not take place, but Brazilian institutions were shaken on January 8, 2023: thousands of Bolsonarist sympathizers then ransacked the places of power in Brasilia.
Mr. Bolsonaro, who was in the United States at the time, is also the subject of an investigation to determine whether he played the role of instigator of these riots.
Banned from leaving Brazil since February, the ex-president is ineligible until 2030 for disinformation about the electronic ballot system used during the last election.
If he hopes to have his conviction overturned before the 2026 election, the campaign led by his camp for an amnesty seems compromised in view of this damning report from the Federal Police.
