In a statement to the (Federal Supreme Court) on Wednesday (21), former Aeronautics Chief Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior confirmed that General Freire Gomes announced in 2022 to () that he would have to arrest him if the then president advanced with scammer plans against the election of (PT).
“I confirm yes, sir. I followed the day before yesterday [segunda-feira] The repercussion [do depoimento de Freire Gomes]was coming from travel. Freire Gomes is a polite and polite person, did not speak with aggressiveness, he would not do that. But that’s what he said. With very peace of mind, calm, but put it exactly. ‘If you do that, I’ll have to arrest you,’ “said the brigadeiro.
Baptista Júnior said he did not see disagreement between what he said in a statement and what he reported to the STF on Monday (19) General Freire Gomes, former army chief under Bolsonaro.
In the second, the former army commander said he did not threaten Bolsonaro or gave him an order of arrest. He stated that he only indicated that he could be “legally framed” if he adopted an illegal measure and that the army “would not act in something that would extrapolate our constitutional competence.”
In Baptista Júnior’s version, the reports are not contradictory because, he said, there was no threat or imprisonment on the part of Freire Gomes, but a statement about the legal impacts of eventual attempted coup.
Brigadier Baptista Junior was chosen by Bolsonaro to command the aeronautics after a military crisis. In 2021, the then chiefs decided to leave their positions after the President dismissed the Minister of Defense, General Fernando Azevedo, alleging lack of support from the military to his performance in the pandemic, marked by challenges to the health authorities.
Due to his participation in social networks, Baptista Júnior became known as the most pocketist of the forces commanders. The image changed after he gives details to the scammer intentions of Bolsonaro and his allies at the end of 2022.
The testimony to his PF, besides that of Freire Gomes, was one of the basis of the complaint about the so -called draft of the coup. The document was reportedly presented to the Armed Forces heads seeking adhesion in at least two meetings – in December 7, 2022, by Bolsonaro himself, and on December 14, by the then Defense Minister, the reserve general Paulo Sérgio Nogueira.
On Wednesday, Junior Baptista told the Supreme Court that conversations with Bolsonaro had a growing coup tone in November. In one of the meetings with the president and Paulo Sérgio, the Brigadeiro stated that the possibility of arrest of the minister, the STF and then president of the (Superior Electoral Court) was arrested.
“. I remember that there was this cogitation of arresting Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who was president of the TSE, and tomorrow the STF will release an HC [habeas corpus] To release it, and what are we going to do? Let’s arrest everyone? He was in Brainstorm, and was in the discomfort, “the former Air Force chief told the STF.
According to Brigadier, meetings of the armed forces heads with Bolsonaro shortly after the electoral result dealt, among other topics, about a possible decree of GLO (guarantee of the law and order).
Baptista Júnior said he understood that the goal was a possible military employment to contain eventual “social seizure”, with the flourishing of coup camps and truckers’ action to ban federal highways.
He said, however, he began to realize that the use of the Armed Forces was a democratic rupture, to prevent Lula’s possession from November 11.
“There is a knowledge of military employment that says war is gain when achieving political and not military goals. From a moment I began to think that the object of any exception measure [era] In order not to assume the president -elect, “he said.
“I spoke to President Bolsonaro: ‘whatever happens, on January 1, you will not be president.’ That is, [a GLO] It was for some social convulsion, but we – the three commanders and the defense minister -, in my way of seeing, we were not talking about it, “he added.
Baptista Júnior said he always made it clear to Bolsonaro that the Brazilian Air Force would not support institutional rupture measures. He also said that he was concerned with the conspiracies to the then Minister of GSI (Institutional Security Office), General Augusto Heleno.
The two met on December 16, 2022 during a graduation at ITA (Technological Institute of Aeronautics). Heleno ride a ride on FAB flight because he had been urgently summoned by Bolsonaro for a meeting the next day, a Saturday.
“I said to him [Heleno] That the Air Force, unanimously from the High Air Force Command, will not support any break in this country. If someone is supporting this, who knows the consequences, “he said.
The former military chief said Heleno was surprised by the firmness with which he talked about it. Asked by the Attorney General, Paulo Gonet, who was warned because he imagined that the meeting would have a coup, Baptista Júnior replied that yes.
“The noise under our shoes had been too high for a long time. I had not made me comfortable. The former president’s words in front of the dawn, that the Armed Forces would be where he sent me, not comfortable. I understood that Heleno would not be called for trivial thing, and I made clear the position of the FAB, which I had not left for him.”
Navy
The former Air Force commander reaffirmed to the Supreme Court on Wednesday what he had told PF about former Navy Chief Admiral Almir Garnier Santos.
According to Baptista Junior, Garnier was not aligned with him and Freire Gomes. “Unfortunately, I once told him that nothing can be so worse for the Armed Forces that he has no consensus stance, and perhaps that was the hardest, Admiral Garnier was not in the same posture as Freire Gomes and me.”
In detailing this understanding, the brigadeiro described the moment when the colleague would have said he made the navy troops available to Bolsonaro.
“In one of these meetings, I have a very passive view of the Admiral. I remember Minister Paulo Sérgio and I talked more, we discussed more, we were taking the president more. In one of these meetings, the point where he said that the navy troops would be available to President Bolsonaro,” he said.
Then the former FAB chief stated that he was at a meeting in which the so-called coup draft was presented and he would have refused to stay at the scene, but that Garnier would have kept silent.
“Minister Paulo Sérgio said that ‘I brought you a document for you to see and to analyze.’ I logically asked him if he was at the table, in a plastic, a document that predicted not to the assumption of the president -elect. I said I do not even admit to this document, I will not be here. ‘ […] I had a cutting point. I had a lot of respect for my colleagues. But I had a cutting point that was on January 1st. […] General Freire Gomes also condemned the possibility of evaluating that. Garnier said nothing and I left the room, I don’t know what happened anymore. “
