Brazilian police recommend indicting Bolsonaro for plotting 'coup'

Photo: Tércio Teixeira Agence France-Presse Jair Bolsonaro is accused of an alleged attempted “coup d’état” aimed at preventing his successor Lula from returning to power after the 2022 election.

Louis Genot – Agence France-Presse in Rio de Janeiro

Published at 15:52

• Americas

Thunderbolt in Brazil: Police on Thursday recommended the indictment of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro for an alleged attempted “coup d’état” aimed at preventing his successor Lula from returning to power after the 2022 election.

The former head of state (2019-2023) and 36 other figures 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 detailed in a statement.

“The Federal Police concluded this Thursday the investigation into 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 statement said. The investigations lasted “nearly two years.”

The Supreme Court, to which the investigation report was forwarded, must now hand it over to the attorney general's office, which will have to decide on the basis of this whether or not to prosecute the former head of state.

In his first reaction on Thursday, Jair Bolsonaro, 69, attacked his bête noire, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading the investigation.

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

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Mr. Bolsonaro is the target of several other investigations, but it is this case that could have the greatest political impact. He claims his innocence and says he is the victim of “persecution.”

Ineligible

The former army captain is ineligible until 2030 for attacking without evidence the electronic ballot box system used in Brazil's elections. But he hopes to have this conviction overturned in order to run for president in 2026.

On February 8, he was banned from leaving Brazilian territory as part of a vast police operation dubbed “Tempus veritatis” (“The moment of truth” in Latin), which that day targeted several of his former close collaborators, with dozens of searches and arrests.

The list of 37 people whose indictment investigators recommended on 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 President Bolsonaro’s eminence grise, and Alexandre Ramagem, his head of intelligence at the time, are also targeted.

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“Yellow and green dagger”

On Tuesday, another police operation linked to this investigation ended by the arrest of four soldiers and a police officer suspected of having fomented a plan to assassinate the champion of the left Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after his victory in the 2022 presidential election.

One of the suspects arrested is reserve general Mario Fernandes, a close collaborator of Jair Bolsonaro during his term. Federal police also called for his indictment on Thursday, along with three others arrested two days earlier.

Their plan, called “Operation Green and Yellow Dagger” (the colors of the Brazilian flag), also included the killing of Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin and Judge Moraes.

At the time of the “Tempus Veritatis” raid, investigators had reported a draft decree to call new elections and arrest Judge Moraes, who presided over the High Electoral Tribunal during the 2022 presidential election.

The decree was reportedly presented by Bolsonaro to senior military officials during meetings in December 2022, between his defeat in the October 30, 2022 runoff election and his inauguration by Lula on January 1, 2023.

The decree ultimately never saw the light of day, but Brazilian institutions were shaken on January 8, 2023: a week after Lula’s inauguration, thousands of Bolsonarista supporters ransacked the seats of power in Brasilia.

Mr. Bolsonaro, who was in the United States that day, is also under investigation to determine whether he played the role of instigator of these riots.