Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, then aide-de-camp to Jair Bolsonaro (PL), suggested that the alleged coup d’état should take place by December 12, 2022, the day of diplomacy for President Lula (PT) and vice Geraldo Alckmin (PSB ) at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).
“You can leave it, general. I’ll talk to the president. But he has that personality sometimes, right? He waits, waits, to see how far he goes. And time is short, right? You can’t wait much longer to pass. It would have to be before the 12th, right? But nothing will definitely happen”, said the soldier.
“And about the trucks, let me tell him about it. [Bolsonaro]because the Army can’t ‘fly flies’ again, right? It’s a military area, no one will interfere,” he added. Cid made reference to vehicles that were fined for being parked near the Army HQ in Brasília.
The statement appears in an exchange of messages obtained by the Federal Police and published by CNN Brazil. The soldier was talking to retired general Mario Fernandes, who at the time held the position of executive secretary of the General Secretariat of the Presidency.
Fernandes was arrested on the 19th during Operation Countercoup, in addition, he was indicted by the PF for allegedly being one of the organizers of the coup plan. Before Cid’s response, the general had asked about the situation of the trucks that were in front of 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”, said Fernandes.
According to investigations, Fernandes began to “explicitly express his anti-democratic intentions” at the beginning of December 2022. For the PF, the general’s messages to Cid were a form of “pressure” for the “consummation of the coup”.
In addition to the diploma, December 12, 2022, was marked by the attempted invasion of the Federal Police headquarters in Brasília. That night, protesters vandalized and burned cars, set fire to five buses and threw stones and sticks at the PF building.
The riot was reportedly motivated by the arrest of José Acácio Serere Xavante for allegedly committing illicit conduct in undemocratic acts. The Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes accepted a request from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) to order the temporary arrest of the indigenous man at the time.
Fernandes would have celebrated that Bolsonaro “accepted advice”
In another message to Cid, Fernandes celebrated that Bolsonaro had accepted the “advice” and spoken to supporters. The former president spent weeks without making public statements after losing the election. On December 9, 2022, Bolsonaro broke the silence in front of the Palácio da Alvorada.
“Stay strong, Cid. My friend, it’s really cool that the president went to the front of Alvorada and spoke out, man. How cool that he accepted our advice. He showed his face to his audience, to the people who trust him and believe in him until death. It was really cool, man. Everyone vibrating. Transmit this to him”, said Fernandes in the audio obtained by the PF and published by the newspaper The Globe.
At the time, Bolsonaro stated that the country was at “a crossroads” and that his supporters would decide its future and “where” the Armed Forces would go. “Today we are living at a crucial moment, a crossroads, the destiny that the people have to take. You are the ones who decide my future. You are the ones who decide where the Armed Forces go. You are also the ones who decide where the Chamber and the Senate go,” said the former president on December 9, 2022.
