Brazil: Bolsonaro threatened with indictment for planned “coup d'état”

Thunderclap in Brazil: police recommend The indictment of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday for an alleged “coup d'état” plan aimed at ;to prevent the return to power of his successor Lula after the 2022 election.

The former head of state ( 2019-2023) and 36 other personalities are the subject of a request for indictment for “violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d'état and criminal organization” as part of this investigation, the police announced. federal in a press release.

According to the police, the investigations, which lasted “nearly two years”, established “the existence of a criminal organization that acted in a coordinated manner in 2022, in the attempt to keep the then president in power”.

The Supreme Court, to which the investigation report was sent, must now submit it to the attorney general's office, which will have to decide whether or not to prosecute the former head of state and the other suspects.

Jair Bolsonaro, 69, responded on Thursday by targeting his bête noire, Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who is in charge of the investigation.

He “conducts the entire investigation, arranges testimonies, arrests without charge,” he accused on the social network X. “He does everything the law does not say,” he added, promising to continue the legal “fight.”

Already sentenced to eight years of ineligibility, Mr. Bolsonaro is the target of several other investigations, but it is this case that could have the greatest political impact. The former army captain says he is the victim of “persecution.”

– “Yellow and green dagger” –

On Tuesday, a police operation linked to this vast investigation resulted in the arrest of four soldiers and a police officer. They are suspected of having fomented a plan to assassinate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after the victory of the champion of the left in 2022.

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrives at the inauguration ceremony of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, in Mexico City on October 1, 2024 © AFP – CARL DE SOUZA

One of the suspects arrested is reserve general Mario Fernandes, a close collaborator of Mr. Bolsonaro during his mandate. He is among the 37 people whose charges the police requested on Thursday, as were two other high-ranking officers arrested with him, although it is not yet known whether this is linked to this alleged assassination plan. 60~/p>

Their plan, called “Operation Green and Yellow Dagger” (the colors of the Brazilian flag), also included killing Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin and Judge Moraes, investigators said. Poisoning was reportedly one of the methods considered.

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

“We need to build this country without persecution, without incitement to hatred or discord,” he said.

– Hope for amnesty –

Banned from leaving Brazil since February, Mr. Bolsonaro 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 to be in trouble, given recent developments.

The list of 37 people whose indictment investigators recommended Thursday includes former ministers in Bolsonaro's government, including Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto, who was also his running mate in 2022.

General Augusto Heleno, who as minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet was considered Bolsonaro's eminence grise, is also targeted. As did Alexandre Ramagem, his intelligence chief at the time.

Investigators reported a draft decree to call new elections and arrest Judge Moraes, president of the Higher Electoral Tribunal during the 2022 presidential election.

This decree was reportedly presented by Mr. Bolsonaro to high-ranking military officials during meetings in December 2022, between his electoral defeat in the second round on October 30, 2022 and Lula's inauguration on January 1, 2023.

The decree ultimately did not see the light of day, but Brazilian institutions were shaken on January 8, 2023: thousands of Bolsonarista sympathizers 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 the role of instigator of these riots.

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