Last witness of prosecution against the “crucial core” of the coup, former Air Force commander Carlos Baptista Junior gave testimony to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Wednesday, 21.
In the hearing, the former chief of force brought details of the meeting between the three commanders-besides him, Admiral Almir Garnier of the Navy and General Marco Antonio Freire Gomes of the Army-with then President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), in which a “draft” was presented to the heads of the troops.
‘Brainstorming’ and Prison of Moraes
Baptista Junior narrated that, in one of the meetings with Bolsonaro and auxiliaries after the second round of the 2022 elections, a brainstorming was held -from English, “storm of ideas” -a technique used in creative processes to develop solutions.
At the time, the heads of the forces were gathered at the Alvorada Palace with the then president, and possibilities of what would be done to conclude the coup. At the time, according to the former FAB chief, the arrest of the then president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Minister Alexandre de Moraes, was a hypothesis mentioned.
“This was in the” brainstorming “of the meetings, this happened. I remember that there was this cogitation of arresting Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who was president of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court). ‘Tomorrow will the STF go to habeas corpus to let go and what are we going to arrest the others?”
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No failure at the electronic ballot boxes
In the testimony, the former Air Force chief also said that he reported Bolsonaro there was no evidence that the electronic ballot boxes had flaws.
“I commented (about the lack of fraud at the ballot box) after the second round, at a meeting we had on November 9, and then in several meetings with the Defense Minister and then, with more emphasis, on the 14th, when he (Bolsonaro) presented me the report of the Vot Legal Institute,” he said.
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The document in question was used as the basis for the request of the PL of annulment of the second round of the elections of that year.
The then commander said he was placed in a connection with the president of the institute, Carlos Rocha, by Bolsonaro himself, when he would have explained technical errors in the report and reinforced the opinion that there was no failures at the ballot box that compromised the integrity of the electoral outcome.
Navy troops available for blow
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The version that Admiral Almir Garnier, then head of the Navy, made his troops available to the former president to give the blow was reaffirmed by Baptista Junior.
“Admiral Garnier was not in the same tune, in the same posture as General Freire Gomes. In one of these meetings, he reached a point where he said that the Navy troops would be available to the president,” he said.
Threat of prison to Bolsonaro
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Baptista Junior also confirmed that General Freire Gomes threatened to arrest Bolsonaro if there was a decree of guarantee of the Law and the Order (GLO) to avoid the inauguration of Lula, elected in October 2022. The warning was made at a meeting at the Dawn Palace in November of that year.
“General Freire Gomes is a polished company. He did not speak aggressively, but that is what he said, ‘If you do that, I’ll have to arrest you.’ It was something like this,” said Baptista Junior.
Warning to General Heleno that FAB was out
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According to the statement, the former chief of force warned the head of Bolsonaro’s Institutional Security Office (GSI), General Augusto Heleno, that the FAB would not participate in an attempted coup.
The meeting took place in a graduation from the Institute of Aeronautical Technology (ITA), in which Heleno honored the grandson in the grade collation, and was summoned to a Bolsonaro emergency meeting. Heleno then asked for a ride for Brasilia on a Force plane.
The two would have headed for a room, where the Air Force commander warned Heleno that he would not admit attempt to blow. “I said, ‘General, we have never talked about this. It is not normal for you to go out in the middle of graduation for an emergency meeting. In the climate that Brazil is, I need to say something to the Lord. I and the air forces will not support institutional break,’” said Baptista Junior in the STF testimony.
