Bolsonaro suspected of “active participation” in a coup plot

Photo: Sergio Lima Agence France-Presse Jair Bolsonaro, November 25

Agence France-Presse in Brasilia

Published at 15:23 Updated at 18:19

• Americas

Jair Bolsonaro “actively participated” in a coup plot to stay in power in 2022 and was “fully aware” of a plan to assassinate his successor Lula, according to a police report damning the far-right ex-president.

The 884-page report was sent Tuesday to the office of state prosecutor Paulo Gonet, who must now decide whether to follow up on the Federal Police’s request for indictment of Mr. Bolsonaro and 36 other people, including military personnel.

“The evidence obtained throughout the investigations showed unequivocally that Jair Bolsonaro planned […] and took part directly and effectively in the actions of a criminal organization whose objective was a coup d’état that did not take place due to circumstances that went against its will,” the police report details.

According to investigators, the coup plan was “aborted” due to the lack of support from the main commanders of the Brazilian army.

Jair Bolsonaro, 69, has always maintained his innocence and has repeatedly said he is the victim of “political persecution.”

“The term 'coup d’état' has never been part of my lexicon,” he said at a press conference Monday.

But investigators say Mr Bolsonaro was “fully aware” of 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 that aimed to assassinate Lula, his elected vice president Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes after the far-right leader failed in his bid for re-election against current leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Lula won by a narrow margin in the second round in late October 2022 and began his third term on January 1, 2023, after a first stint as president from 2003 to 2010.

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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 listed poisoning as one of the methods considered, was printed by one of the suspects at the Planalto Presidential Palace.

“I have to be very grateful that I am alive. “The attempt to poison me and Alckmin did not work,” Lula said last Thursday at an official ceremony.

But the Federal Police believes that the intentions of the former far-right president and his close collaborators were highlighted well before the 2022 election.

The investigation report refers in particular to a meeting on July 5 of that year, in the presence of Mr. Bolsonaro, where there was allegedly talk of “disseminating knowingly untruthful information” aimed at discrediting the electronic ballot box system used in the Brazilian elections.

The Federal Police also reported “Jair Bolsonaro’s participation” in the preparation 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 d’état ultimately did not take place, but Brazilian institutions were shaken on January 8, 2023: thousands of Bolsonarista supporters ransacked the seats of power in Brasilia.

Mr Bolsonaro, who was in the United States at the time, is also under investigation to determine whether he played a role in instigating the riots.

Banned from leaving Brazil since February, the former president is ineligible until 2030 for misinformation about the electronic ballot box system used in the last election.

While he hopes to have his conviction overturned before the 2026 election, his camp’s campaign for amnesty appears compromised in light of this damning report from the Federal Police.