In the course of the investigations on the coup attempt in Brazil between the late 2022 and early 2023, the Brazilian Federal Police found at the headquarters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, the formation of the extreme right -right Liberal Party, a manuscript paper entitled “Operation 142”. The federal agents ran into the document on the desk of Colonel Flávio Pilgrino, advisor to the Vice President and Minister of Defense of Bolsonaro, General Walter Braga Netto. In it, An operation divided into six stages to abolish democracy through the use of military force was described in detail. The last one was called “desired final political state” and described its ultimate goal: “Lula will not go up the ramp”. That is, to prevent the inauguration of the president -elect in the elections of October 2, 2022, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
That kind of coup draft is one of the many evidence that the Federal Police collected in an 884 -page report delivered to Judge Alexandre de Moraes, minister, as they are known, of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court (STF), an organ called as the guardian of the Constitution in Brazil. Police investigation was commissioned by De Moraes after On January 8, 2023, a mob of Bolsonaro followers assaults the headquarters of the three main democratic powers in Brazil: STF himself, the Congress and the Planalto Palace. According to the researchers, the evidence obtained “unequivocally” that Jair Bolsonaro “planned, acted and had direct and effective control over the acts executed by the criminal organization that aimed to carry out a coup d’etat and abolish the democratic state of law.”
Now, Jair Bolsonaro will have to answer for these facts before the STF. With the data collected, the Supreme Court of Brazil decided at the end of March of this year that the former president and seven of his allies must be tried by the Crimes of coup d’etat, attempt to abolition from the democratic state of law, armed association to commit crimes, damage to public property and deterioration of real estate. Bolsonaro faces more than 40 years in prison. With him, and for the same positions, the former defense ministers of Bolsonaro, General Walter Braga Netto and General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira will also answer; his former Marine, Admiral Garnier Santos; its former security minister, Anderson Torres; his former espionage chief Alexandre Ramagem; His former Minister of Institutional Security, General Augusto Heleno, and his exasisant Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, who will receive, the case, a minor sentence after confirming the researchers that Bolsonaro had contacted the military leaders to discuss plans for a coup d’etat.
The trial has begun this Monday and the turn of Jair Bolsonaro will arrive this Tuesday or, like afternoon, Wednesday. A statement that, he said himself, will be worth seeing. Of course, Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied his role in any coup d’etat. All this despite the evidence and although in September 2021 He said in a speech that only God would get him out of power, that he would only leave the presidency arrested, killed or won. When he delivered those words, Bolsonaro already had in mind the 2022 elections, for which he questioned the same electoral system with which he won in 2018. Those questions, which he carried out throughout his mandate, caused the Brazilian Superior Court to condemn him for a crime of abuse of power in order to delegitimize the elections to an disqualification to exercise any public office until at least 2030.
But those statements in relation to the electoral system are not the only evidence that shows the allergy of Bolsonaro towards democracy. In 1999, being a deputy of Congress, he warned that, if one day he became president, he would close the Congress. “I would give a coup that same day, […] And I am sure that at least 90% of the population would celebrate and applaud, “he said then. That same year, if there were doubts, He also defended that there was “to do what was pending the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964 – 1985), that is,” kill 30,000 people “.
Although we still have to listen to his statement against Alexandre de Moraes, the truth is that Bolsonaro has denied having orchestrated a coup d’etat, but not having sought it. In fact, he has recognized that he did have conversations with some military bosses. “I talked to people behind closed. What can we do? We analyze the state of siege, the State of Defense, article 142, the intervention …”he said in a recent interview with Folha de S. Paulo.
The police report on the coup d’etat that Bolsonaro left Brazil at the end of 2022 to Orlando, United States, because he had not managed to gather enough military support for his coup d’etat. With that trip, the researchers say, Bolsonaro did not give up either, but preferred to wait outside the country to see if the assaults of January 8 were successful and avoid possible detention. If the coup did not occur, the report concludes, it was for “circumstances outside its will”.
While almost everyone is aware in Brazil that Bolsonaro and his people will be convicted of the exuberance of the evidence, The Brazilian former president still trusts his “good friend” Donald Trump, the president of the United States. In fact, as they do with the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court for wanting to apply justice to the siege of Israel over Gaza, the US administration has also put the Brazilian magistrate Alexandre de Moraes in its target. This not only takes the case of the coup, but also starring important cases against the social network of Elon Musk, X, for not collaborating in the investigation of the assaults on January 8, and against the Ultra Rumble platform. A few weeks ago, Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said there was “a great possibility” that de Moraes was sanctioned.
From Brazil they consider that this threat is due to the campaign that the son of Bolsonaro, Eduardo, who renounced his seat as a deputy to settle in the country in favor of his father. After Rubio’s words, in fact, De Moraes opened an investigation against Eduardo Bolsonaro at the request of the Brazilian attorney, Paulo Gonet, for the crimes of obstruction of investigations, coercion during the current process and attack on Brazil’s sovereignty. The president, Lula da Silva, called “unfortunate that a Brazilian deputy, son of the former president, is installed there to interfere with the internal policy of Brazil. It is serious, it is a terrorist practice, an antipatriotic practice“He said to make it clear that his country” will defend not only his minister [De Moraes] but also to his Supreme Court. “
The first revelations
In these first hours of judgment, attention has focused on Mauro Cid, former personal assistant of the former president, who gave an account of Bolsonaro’s efforts and a part of the military dome to cancel the results of the elections. As reported by the EFE agency, for more than four hours, the military confirmed the crux of what he told the police in his day and clarified that his confessions were made “voluntarily” and “without pressures”, in the face of the attempts of Bolsonarism for discrediting the testimony.
The story with which he is helping researchers was not amilated and repeated: he said that coup efforts passed, first, to seek failures in the electronic polls that justify the annulment of the elections. “The great expectation is to be found fraud at the polls (…). With fraud, the military could be convinced, saying that the election was fraudulent, and perhaps the situation changed,” he said.
As there was no way, because the elections were clean, Ultra’s advisors discussed decrees drafts to declare the state of siege and defense and, thus, cancel the electoral results. In one of those meetings, the ex-president (2019-2022) asked one of his advisors to “cut” one of the documents and approved plans to imprison the magistrate of Moraes. Although he confirms that Bolsonaro was increasingly being held as the days progressed, he indicates that he was aware of the movements that certain military continued to plot to remove the victory from Lula.
The former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency, Alexandre Ramagem, also declared on this first day, but rejected the accusations of coup attempt, said that it was “private” documents and that they were prepared long before the 2022 elections.
