former minister of () and vice-president on his 2022 ticket, was (14), under suspicion of obstruction of justice, when trying to extract information from the whistleblower Mauro Cid.
See five notable stages in the trajectory of the retired general investigated for alleged participation in a coup plot that would include a plan to assassinate Lula (PT), Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) and .
Military training
Braga Netto graduated from the cavalry course at Aman (Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras) in 1978, a year after Bolsonaro finished his cycle at the same institution — also part of this generation were Luiz Eduardo Ramos, another who would serve the Bolsonaro Esplanada, and Edson Pujol , who commanded the Army that same season.
The native of Belo Horizonte, according to his CV, has a master’s degree in military operations and a doctorate in applications, planning and military studies, titles earned in schools linked to the Armed Forces.
He held several official positions before turning the key to party politics. The first was advising, during the FHC administration, the structuring and implementation of the Amazon Protection System.
He also worked in East Timor, leading a group of military observers at the UN. Other positions: Army attaché in Poland and the United States, in addition to coordinating the security plan for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016.
Braga Netto reached the top of his military career, as one of the corporation’s four-star generals — today there are 19 of those on active duty. The Army itself has no information about any of its personnel of this rank having been arrested before in history.
He asked to join the reserve before becoming a minister in the Bolsonaro government.
Intervention in Rio de Janeiro
His national projection began in 2018, when then-president Michel Temer (MDB) appointed him from Rio de Janeiro, a state besieged by militia and drug trafficking.
For ten months, he had more power than the governor of Rio de Janeiro over the area. The councilor (PSOL) and Anderson Gomes, her driver, were murdered just over a month after Netto took office.
He held the position when retired general Eduardo Villas Bôas, commander of the Army at the time, (currently X) sent an incendiary message pressuring the (Federal Supreme Court) on the eve of the habeas corpus trial against Lula. The PT member was arrested two days later.
Villas Bôas himself said years later that he sent the text before publishing it to some four-star generals. Braga Netto was one of them.
The general joined the Bolsonaro government in 2020, replacing Onyx Lorenzoni in the Civil House. His appointment consolidated the resumption of prestige of the military nucleus on that Esplanada, which already included fellow general officers Luiz Eduardo Ramos and Augusto Heleno, as well as a major from the PM reserve, Jorge Oliveira.
“My third floor was completely militarized. Four ministers there. Nothing against civilians, they are exceptional,” said Bolsonaro at the time.
In 2021, Braga Netto took over another ministry, that of Defense, with part of the Army leadership still resentful about the change of main command posts carried out by Bolsonaro days earlier. The action then triggered the biggest military crisis ever seen since redemocratization.
At the head of the ministry, to celebrate the military coup of March 31, 1964, portrayed as a “historical milestone”.
Braga Netto joined PL, Bolsonaro’s party, on the eve of the 58th anniversary of day one of the military dictatorship. He was already listed as vice-president on the ticket on which the president would seek re-election. The partnership was consolidated, and the duo ended up losing the election to Lula and his number two, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB).
Message to protesters
On more than one occasion, Braga Netto embodied the Bolsonarist disbelief in electronic voting machines, one of the whistles to question the 2022 electoral result.
Already defeated, in November 2022 Braga Netto greeted supporters who were waiting for Bolsonaro in the playpen at Palácio da Alvorada and said a phrase understood as a password for the continuation of demonstrations that called for military intervention to prevent the elected government from taking office. “Don’t lose faith, okay? That’s all I can tell you now,” he said.
The context of the statement became clearer after the release of the Federal Police report that showed the movement of military personnel at that time in support of the coup plot. Braga Netto is one of those indicted.
He denies having worked towards institutional rupture, just as he says there was no coup plan.
Prison
Braga Netto was arrested in Copacabana, a neighborhood in the south zone where he lives. His cell phone was seized the same morning. According to the Federal Police, the preventive arrest occurred because the general had obstructed investigations into the coup attempt.
The suspicion has to do with the plea bargain of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp. Cid reported to Moraes that Braga Netto used assistants to access details of his statements. Braga Netto would have tried, General Mauro Lourena Cid. “They tried to find out what I had said,” Cid, the son, told the PF.
Cid also stated that the general handed over cash to a lieutenant colonel indicted for the murder plot against Lula, Alckmin and Moraes.
Braga Netto’s defense denies that he tried to interfere in the investigations and says that he will speak out in the case after being “fully aware of the facts that gave rise to the decision”.
Bolsonaro’s former minister was arrested after returning from Alagoas, where he was on vacation with his family. He was in custody between 2016 and 2019.
