Operation Countercoup, launched this Tuesday (19) by the Federal Police to arrest four Army soldiers and an agent from the PF itself, revealed details of how State agents close to former president Jair Bolsonaro planned acts to try to keep him in power. power after the defeat in the 2022 election. The investigation recovered plans to kill minister Alexandre de Moraes, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and vice Geraldo Alckmin. There are cell phone messages indicating that General Mario Fernandes, former head of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, was trying to convince Bolsonaro to authorize an alleged coup d’état.
“The elements brought to the file prove the existence of very serious crimes and sufficient evidence of authorship, in addition to demonstrating the extreme dangerousness of the agents, members of a criminal organization, with the objective of carrying out acts of violence, monitoring targets and planning kidnapping and , possibly homicides”, summarized Alexandre de Moraes in the decision that authorized the arrests, carried out in the morning.
The operation was based on files deleted by former aide-de-camp Mauro Cid, who became a whistleblower in the case. In the afternoon, he had to testify again before the PF to clarify why he had hidden these details in his collaboration. There is a risk that, as a result, he will lose the benefits agreed in the agreement. The revelations, in any case, add a new chapter to the investigation into the coup attempt, which was about to be closed.
The PF has already asked Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading the investigation at the Federal Supreme Court (STF), for more time to analyze the new evidence collected this Tuesday. The new discoveries, however, add evidence that Bolsonaro was aware of and possibly authorized the advancement of plans to prevent the presidential transition.
Since August, the delivery of the final report, with the possible indictment of the former president, has been postponed by the PF. The current stage of the investigation presents facts that bring Bolsonaro even closer to the plot.
In this most recent phase of the investigation, the PF discovered, for example, that, on December 15, 2022, a group of five soldiers went to the field, in Brasília, to follow Moraes on his travels. Cell phone messages and antenna signals showed members of the group circulating near the minister’s functional residence.
In the operation, called “Copa 2022”, the soldiers exchanged messages on an application indicating their positions. Hours later, there was the order to “abort” the mission. The lines were in the name of third parties and each soldier used a code name referring to a country (Germany, Argentina, Austria, Brazil and Ghana).
The PF also revealed the existence of another plan, called “Punhal Verde e Amarelo”, in which the plan to execute Moraes, Lula and Alckmin was accompanied by the “demands” necessary to carry out the crimes, such as lifting the minister’s security apparatus, of their movements and schedules, the cell phones that would be used to communicate with the executioners, as well as the weapons that would be used (pistols, rifles, machine gun and grenade launchers and rocket launchers).
In relation to Lula, there was the idea of “poisoning or using chemicals to cause an organic collapse”. As for Alckmin, “his neutralization would extinguish the winning ticket”, as described by the plan, drawn up by General Mario Fernandes.
On July 5, 2022, before the start of the electoral campaign, the general participated in a meeting with Bolsonaro and government ministers at Palácio do Planalto in which action was discussed before the election, based on the premise that there would be fraud in favor of Lula. At the time, the Ministry of Defense was trying to prove problems with electronic voting machines.
In November, after the victory of the PT member, meetings also began to take place at the Palácio da Alvorada, where Bolsonaro was staying. The PF discovered that the document with breakup plans was printed at Palácio do Planalto and later taken to the official residence of the Presidency.
“It is evident that on 12/06/2022, at the time when the Executive Secretary of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, general MARIO FERNANDES printed the document ‘Plj.docx’ (18:09), possibly related to the operational planning of the clandestine action to arrest/execute the minister ALEXANDRE DE MORAES and assassinate the elected president and vice-president LULA and GERALDO ALCKMIN, the then president of the Republic JAIR BOLSONARO was also at the Planalto Palace. In the same period, there was also the concomitant presence, in the Palácio do Planalto region, of MAURO CID and RAFAEL DE OLIVEIRA”, says the PF in the request for the arrest of the suspected soldiers.
General’s contacts with Bolsonaro
Mario Fernandes’ messages indicate that he exercised leadership over “black kids”, Army special operations soldiers involved in the plot. Furthermore, he maintained contact with protesters who camped in front of the Army HQ in Brasília. Finally, he spoke frequently with Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp and right-hand man, almost always in an attempt to persuade the former president to sign official acts authorizing the military to act towards an institutional rupture.
In an audio sent to Mauro Cid on December 8, 2022, days before Lula’s diploma, Mario Fernandes says he spoke with Bolsonaro about an action until the 31st, the day before his inauguration.
“Cid, good night. My friend, first of all I’m sorry for bothering you so much today. But damn, we can’t miss this opportunity. It’s two things. The first, during the conversation I had with the president, he mentioned that the 12th, due to the vagabond’s diploma, would not be a restriction, that this can happen, that any action we take can happen until December 31st and everything. But damn, right then I said, come on, president, but as soon as possible, we’ve already lost so many opportunities”, says part of the message.
In the rest of the message, he talks about the street movements against Lula’s inauguration and the need to mobilize the military for forceful action before new commanders take over.
“From next week onwards, I mentioned this to him, one of the two, either the street demonstration movements, they will either fade away or they will intensify. Increase radicalism and we lose control, right? Anything can happen. But they can fade too. I’ll even send you a video below of the situation in front of the PDC in Rio de Janeiro. Is it ok? And the other aspect is that, well, we already have command passes from the force commands, armed force. Already 20, 20 something. And then they will hand over the command to those who are being nominated for the prisoner’s eventual government. And then everything gets more difficult, man, for any action. So these two aspects are important, right? Look at the video below,” said Mario Fernandes to Mauro Cid.
In the following audio, the general asks the adjutant for help in maintaining the camp at the Army HQ:
“And Cid, the second point is this, I’m trying to act directly with the forces, but, hey, if you could ask the president or the president’s office to act. Well, we have tried to guide both the agricultural staff and the truck drivers who are there in front of the HQ. And today it appears to us that there is a search and seizure warrant from the TSE, no, from the Supreme Court, in relation to the trucks that are there. The guys can’t act, it’s a military area, but there have been arrests made there by the Federal Police. So that would be important, if the president could give input to the Ministry of Justice to hold the PF or for the Defense to alert the CMP, and, damn it, it won’t. Wow, the trucks are inside a military area, the guys came there, damn, they’ve been stopping producing in Brazil for 30 days and now they’re going to have the trucks seized. Dude, this is absurd. So, with that in mind, talk to the president, man. A big hug, stay strong!”