Minister Alexandre Padilha (Institutional Relations) stated this Wednesday (27) that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has avoided commenting with interlocutors on the evidence presented by the Federal Police about the alleged attempted coup d’état, which was kept confidential the report raised on Tuesday afternoon (26).
According to him, Lula “makes no further comments beyond that”, but asks that those involved – to date, former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and 36 other people have been indicted – be vehemently punished.
“The president has reaffirmed all his confidence in the work of the Federal Police, he has reinforced that this is an institutional debate, that due legal process continues and that all those who committed these crimes are investigated and vehemently punished,” said the minister in interview with CNN Brazil.
Alexandre Padilha pointed out that the upcoming trial will “increasingly isolate those who still defend these criminal acts, or try to ignore them”.
Still according to him, the Lula government gave full autonomy to the Federal Police and other institutional bodies to investigate the suspicion – including the acts of January 8, 2023, which led to the invasion and depredation of the headquarters of the Three Powers in Brasília, which would have been the culmination of the coup attempt, according to the authority.
The act, in fact, says the minister, made Lula join political forces that were not even his supporters, and that this will also contribute to “isolating those who still try to defend these criminals.
The minister said that the content is of considerable gravity and that he himself was surprised to see his name mentioned in General Augusto Heleno’s notes to be monitored “using State instruments”.
Heleno was head of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) of the Bolsonaro government and, according to the PF, he used resources from the department to “plan and execute measures to discredit the Brazilian electoral process and to subvert the democratic regime”.
Padilha said that the room he occupied today at Palácio do Planalto was Heleno’s and that, upon entering the place at the beginning of last year, he came across photographs of all the directors of the former SNI on the wall – “all that apparatus of the Dictatorship who persecuted people like Rubens Paiva, my own father was tortured”. “Who knows what they intended to do to me”, he pointed out.
“Several institutions were contaminated, individuals from various institutions”, said the minister, also remembering article 142 of the Constitution, which was interpreted by some jurists as authorization for the Armed Forces to act as a “moderating power” of the Republic – which he highlights be wrong.
The minister also recalled that the plan did not go ahead due to the resistance of senior commanders to join the supposed coup attempt, and that this prevented the rupture. And he reinforced that the government continues to trust in the work of the GSI – which was questioned after the acts of 8/1 – and the Federal Police.
“Unfortunately, this culture of hate led to this individual, two weeks ago, losing his life when he carried out an attack on the Supreme Court, apparently trying to assassinate a minister. This culture of hate, this perversion that is this attitude of the extreme right in Brazil”, he pointed out.
