A carries out search and seizure and arrest warrants this Tuesday morning (19) against suspects of being part of a criminal organization that planned a coup d’état in 2022 to prevent the president from taking office ().
The PT member defeated then president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in a fierce 2nd round dispute. During his term, Bolsonaro accumulated coup statements and is now the target of a PF investigation into his role in the plot that tried to prevent Lula’s inauguration that year.
According to the PF, among the actions that would be developed for this was the “Green and Yellow Dagger” plan, which would involve the murder of the PT member and his deputy, (). Another target would be the minister of the (Supreme Federal Court), who would be arrested and then killed.
At least four soldiers, one of whom is a retired general, are targets of the measures implemented in Rio de Janeiro, Goiás, Amazonas and the Federal District. The Army follows the steps.
They are reserve general Mario Fernandes and lieutenant colonels Hélio Ferreira Lima, Rafael Martins de Oliveira and Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo. Federal police officer Wladimir Matos Soares is also among those targeted by arrest warrants.
Mario Fernandes was executive secretary of the General Secretariat of the Presidency during the government. He was also an advisor to federal deputy Eduardo Pazuello (-RJ), but left the position following a decision by the STF.
The other soldiers had special forces training, the so-called “black kids”, and were in command positions in the Army until the investigations began. Hélio Ferreira and Rafael Martins were already removed from their positions, by decision of Moraes, as they had been targets of previous operations.
Lieutenant Colonel Rodrigo Bezerra was targeted for the first time in the investigation into the coup d’état planned by former president Jair Bolsonaro and his allies at the end of 2022. The Army monitors the searches and seizures and tries to gather information to understand the impact of the operation on barracks.
In total, there are five preventive arrest warrants, three search warrants and 15 precautionary measures other than prison, which include the prohibition of maintaining contact with the others being investigated, the prohibition of being absent from the country, with the delivery of passports within 24 ( twenty-four) hours, and the suspension of the exercise of public functions.
According to the PF, the investigations carried out in the digital militias investigation indicate that the “criminal organization used a high level of technical-military knowledge to plan, coordinate and execute illicit actions in the months of November and December 2022.”
The targets, says the PF, are, for the most part, military personnel with training in Special Forces (FE), the so-called “black kids” (elite troops of the Force).
“The planning prepared by those investigated detailed the human and military resources necessary to trigger the actions, using advanced military operational techniques, in addition to the subsequent establishment of an Institutional Crisis Management Office, to be integrated by the investigated themselves for the management of institutional conflicts arising as a result of the actions”, says the PF.
The facts investigated at this stage of the investigation constitute, in theory, the crimes of violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, Coup d’état and criminal organization.
