Former Army Commander and Reserve General Marco Antonio Freire Gomes confirmed on Monday (19) in a statement to the Supreme Court (STF) that received a plan from the Jair Bolsonaro government to prevent the inauguration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Freire Gomes. He said he warned the former president that the Army would not participate in any initiative that violated the Constitution.
The reserve general is one of the prosecution witnesses in the process in which Bolsonaro is accused of a coup attempt. Yesterday, the Supreme began to question these witnesses. The hearing was conducted by the rapporteur of the case, Minister Alexandre de Moraes.
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In the statement, Freire Gomes said he had several political meetings with Bolsonaro and government ministers. In one of them, he warned the former president that the army would not join. In the statement, Freire Gomes denied that he had threatened Bolsonaro in prison if he tried a blow. “What we warned of the president was that he should pay attention to all these aspects. And that in the army we would not participate in anything that would go beyond our constitutional competence,” said the general.
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The former commander also stated that the proposal to prevent Lula’s inauguration was presented in December 2022 at a meeting of the then Minister of Defense, Paulo Sérgio Oliveira, with the heads of the Armed Forces. Freire Gomes said that the content of the presentation resembled that of the draft coup, found at the house of former Justice Minister Anderson Torres.
The main hypotheses cited at the meeting were the guarantee of the Law and the Order (GLO), State of Site and State of Defense. “He (Oliveira) presented these considerations, all based on legal aspects, in the Constitution, so it did not draw our attention. As it was still being studied, we await a manifestation of the President.”
It was up to an advisor to Jair Bolsonaro to present the proposals, but Freire Gomes said he could not attest to the identity of this assistant.
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The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) suspects that Filipe Martins, former advisor to international affairs. The former army commander said that in that first meeting the proposals were presented as hypotheses under study, which would still be refined. He would have, in the following meetings, to be positioned against the attempt to intervene in the electoral process and alerted Bolsonaro of the risks that was in a coup onslaught.
“I warned with all the education that the measures he eventually wanted to take, he should pay attention to all issues, from support, nationally and internationally, Congress, justice. If he did not consider all legal aspects, besides being able to count on our support, it could be legally framed,” said the general, in the statement.
Freire Gomes also stated that the series of meetings between him and the heads of the Navy and the Air Force with Bolsonaro assistants resulted in the consensus that there was no legal basis for the use of the Armed Forces to interfere with the election results.
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According to his reports, the former president’s order assistant, Colonel Mauro Cid, called him on December 9 for a conversation with the then president. The reason for the meeting would be to calm him down.
At the time, he would have been dissuaded from the idea of decreeing law and the order, state of siege or state of defense to prevent Lula’s possession, but would be under pressure from “other groups.”
“There were groups from outside, including civilians, who could lead the president to take other measures,” he said. As he was in Fortaleza due to his mother’s health problems, the army commander sent General Estevam Theophilo Gaspar de Oliveira in his place.
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Tense climate
In addition to Moraes, the other ministers who are part of the first class of the Supreme Court, Carmem Lúcia, Cristiano Zanin and Luiz Fux. The only one who was absent was Flávio Dino. Bolsonaro, Walter Braga Netto and Augusto Heleno also accompanied the testimonials.
During the hearing, the weather was tense. Using the former commander, Moraes warned that he could not omit information about the participation of former Navy Chief Admiral Almir Garnier in planning a coup.
In testimony to the first class of the Court, Freire Gomes said he did not remember the Admiral to have made himself available to the then president for “out of normal measures”, when questioned by the Attorney General, Paulo Gonet.
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“I was focused on my loyalty mission, to be frank with the (former) president. May I remember, what the Minister of Defense (Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira) did was to be silent. Admiral Garnier I don’t remember that he said.
Moraes then told the former army chief to think well before answering, because “witness cannot omit what he knows.”
“He lied to the police, has to say that he lied to the police. The witness was the commander of the army, is prepared for pressure situations,” said the STF minister. “You said in the police that Garnier has made himself available to the president. Either the Lord has failed the police or is falsifying here,” he added.
In a statement to the Federal Police, Freire Gomes reported a meeting between the Armed Forces and Bolsonaro commanders on December 7, 2022. At the time, the then president presented a version of the document with the decree of the State of Defense and the creation of the regularity committee to “investigate the compliance and legality of the electoral process”.
Previous statement
To the investigators, the former army commander said, “He believes, as it should be, that Admiral Garnier would have made himself available to the President of the Republic.”
Yesterday, after being confronted by Moraes, Freire Gomes stated that “I would never lie.” “What I wanted to report is that I was contrary to the matter. Admiral Garnier took this posture of being with the president. I can’t infer what he meant by being with the president,” he said.
Freire Gomes was summoned as a witness of prosecution and defense of defendants Bolsonaro, Mauro Cid, Almir Garnier dos Santos and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira.
