The Federal Police (PF) concluded that former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) traveled to the United States in December 2022 to avoid possible arrest. The conclusion is in the final report of the investigation into the alleged attempted coup d’état, released this Tuesday (26) by the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
Investigators found an escape plan on the computer of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, then the former president’s aide-de-camp.
The document, in PowerPoint format, was created on March 22, 2021, however, according to the PF, it was used after Bolsonaro lost the presidential elections. “Despite not being used in 2021, the escape plan was adapted and used at the end of 2022, when the criminal organization was unsuccessful in consummating the coup d’état”, says an excerpt from the report released this Tuesday (26).
The PF stated that the former president decided to leave the country after failing to obtain support from the Army High Command, to “consummate the institutional rupture”. Furthermore, he also expected the “outcome” of the acts on January 8, 2023.
“As will be described in the next topics, Jair Bolsonaro, after failing to obtain the support of the Armed Forces to complete the institutional rupture, left the country, to avoid possible arrest and await the outcome of the coup acts on January 8, 2023 (‘ Selma party’)”, stated the PF.
The investigation pointed out that the plan was drawn up amid Bolsonaro’s escalation of attacks against the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and the security of electronic voting machines. The former president’s criticisms culminated in speeches given on September 7, 2021, in Brasília and São Paulo.
In the report, the PF cited phrases said by Bolsonaro during the two events. In São Paulo, for example, the then President of the Republic called Minister Alexandre de Moraes a “scoundrel”. “We don’t want a rupture, we don’t want to fight with any Power, but we cannot admit that a person puts our freedom at risk,” said Bolsonaro at the time.
Bolsonaro’s escape plan included the use of weapons, techniques and military structures
The plan would be put into practice if Bolsonaro’s “attack” on the Judiciary and
the democratic regime “suffered any setback that would put its freedom at risk”, according to the report.
The actions were organized based on Army special forces techniques and included the use of a device called RAFE/LAFE, acronyms for “Escape and Evasion Assistance Network” and “Escape and Evasion Assistance Line”.
Three hypothetical scenarios contrary to the former president were defined in the planning: “STF interferes in the Executive”; “STF revokes the ticket for 22”; and “STF (TSE) bars the PEC approved by Congress from the printed vote”. Given these scenarios, the plan describes three main steps that would be taken to protect Bolsonaro:
1st – “Protection of PR in Planalto and Alvorada – without support from GSI”: GSI military personnel would be co-opted to assist in the “exfiltration” of the then president and would occupy the Planalto and Alvorada Palaces. This phase of the operation also provided for the “availability of weapons and ammunition for ready use, which would be in a safe”.
A specific excerpt from the document cited: “ECD weapons and ammunition (provide safe and leave ‘within reach’)”. According to the PF, “the term ‘ECD’ means ‘in condition’, an expression used to designate that an artifact is in a condition to be used immediately, as soon as necessary.”
2nd – “Conditions of occupying Etta Estrg as a deterrent to show support for Pr”: The term “Etta Estrg” would be an abbreviation for “strategic structure”, which consists of facilities, services and systems that, if interrupted or destroyed, would cause a serious social or security impact on the State and society.
For the PF, one of the objectives was the “occupation of strategic structures by military personnel who had joined the coup attempt”, to show support for Bolsonaro and thus “inhibit any State action decreed by the Judiciary”.
3rd – “ECD exfiltrate Pr out of the country”: After guaranteeing the former president’s safety, the “coup military would create an aid network to welcome the former president and take him out of national territory”.
