The Federal Police (PF) report, released this Tuesday (26), indicates retired general Walter Braga Netto as one of the organizers of the coup d’état plan to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in power.
According to the report, Braga Netto would have used the “mode of action” of the digital militia and instructed the retired Army major, Ailton Barros, to direct “personal attacks” against the Army commanders, General Freire Gomes, and the Air Force commander, Lieutenant -Brigadier Baptista Júnior, for having opposed collaborating with the coup d’état.
At the time, both commanders refused to participate in the plan. In a statement to the PF, Baptista Júnior stated that Freire Gomes had stated that he would arrest Bolsonaro if the then president decreed a Law and Order Guarantee (GLO) to remain in the presidency.
The general also instructed Barros to praise the then commander of the Navy, Squadron Admiral Almir Garnier, one of the signatories of the note in defense of the camps in front of Army barracks after Bolsonaro’s defeat in the elections.
“[…] As extensively detailed and demonstrated in the records, General Braga Netto ordered and directed soldiers to promote and disseminate personal attacks on General Freire Gomes and Lieutenant-Brigadier Baptista Júnior, including their families, because they were . On the other hand, in relation to Admiral Almir Garnier, the orientation was to spread praise. There are records of the then Navy commander being recognized as a ‘patriot’”, says the document.
In addition to the orders made to military personnel, Braga Netto was also responsible for receiving operational planning for Special Forces actions to carry out the coup.
The PF investigation also revealed that the coup plan also intended to create a coup, which would be commanded by Braga Netto, as general coordinator, and by the then chief minister of the Institutional Security Office (GSI), reserve general Augusto Heleno, who would be the chief of staff.
According to the report, the group’s objective was to “advise” Bolsonaro in the administration of the country after the coup took place.
The document also contains some points highlighted in testimony by Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, at the time, Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp. Cid signed a plea bargain agreement to collaborate with the investigation. According to the lieutenant colonel, one of the meetings to discuss the coup was held at Braga Netto’s residence, on November 12, 2022.
The report indicates Braga Netto as a “central figure” of the acts that planned to carry out a federal intervention in the country. He also says that the retired general had “clear coup intentions”.
The retired general was chosen to be vice president in Jair Bolsonaro’s bid for reelection in 2022. Before entering the dispute, he was chief minister of the Civil House and minister of Defense in the Bolsonaro government.
Hit plane
Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), ordered, this Tuesday (26), that he investigates a coup plot to keep Bolsonaro in the presidency.
According to PF investigations, Jair Bolsonaro’s plan aimed to kill Moraes, elected president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and vice-president Geraldo Alckmin (PSB).