The army’s expelled Major told the (Supreme Court) on Thursday (24) that he did not lead the former minister’s requests to attack the heads of the opposites.
In a statement as a defendant in the case, Barros said he considered those as a “loser’s whimper.”
“When Braga Netto sends me the message, offering the lions, my understanding was that it was lamuria, a campaign loser whimper. I understood at that moment, initially, an outburst because I didn’t have the whole context you have today,” he said.
Ailton Barros said he only continued conversations with Braga Netto because he would like to approach the general. He told the Supreme to have, at the time, interest in applying in elections in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
The former military man, however, was asked about an X (former Twitter) publication he made on December 19, 2022-a few days after starting conversations with Braga Netto.
The text published by Barros said: “It is time for jaguar to drink water, separate men from the little children, and know the omits, the cowards and the weak, in order to blame them and bury them with the story that will be written.
He defended himself by arguing that the message was not a critique of the fact that Freire Gomes positions himself against a coup d’état. Barros says he wanted to write an ambiguous text to generate engagement on social networks and gain followers.
“My head was just about politics. I took advantage of all this situation that was happening to try to launch a publication and that it brought me new voters and new followers. That was my goal, it was no other,” he told the Supreme.
The former Major said he used metaphors in the text to generate ambiguity, allow multiple interpretations and arouse curiosity in readers. “This is what I learned in marketing classes,” he added.
Ailton Barros was one of Braga Netto’s interlocutors at the end of 2022. The general vented to WhatsApp about the disappointment with army commanders, Freire Gomes, and the aeronautics, junior Baptista – bubes contrary to Bolsonaro’s scammer initiatives.
“My friend, unfortunately I have to say that the guilt for what is happening and will happen and Gen Freire Gomes. Omission and indecision do not fit a combatant,” Braga Netto said in one of the messages.
Barros replied that if Freire Gomes were in opposition to the president would be “properly imploded and will know Astral Hell.”
“Sit the stick in the Junior Baptist (…) traitor of the homeland. Dai forward. Hells in his life and family.
The Supreme Court holds this fifth simultaneous sessions to listen to the testimonials of the defendants of nuclei 2 and 4 of the coup plot. The hearings are conducted by auxiliary judges of Minister Alexandre de Moraes.
The core of Ailton Barros is made up of former Bolsonaro government members of lower echelons, army military personnel and accused of disseminating misinformation about the elections.
They are defendants in this nucleus (army expelled captain), (Major of the Army Reserve), (Army Sergeant), (Army Lieutenant Colonel), (Army Colonel), (Federal Police) and (President of the Legal Vote Institute).
The other nucleus is composed of members of higher levels of the Bolsonaro government who would have acted to enable the coup d’état.
The group is composed of members of the Bolsonaro government: Fernando de Sousa Oliveira (former director of operations of the Ministry of Justice), Filipe Martins (former presidential advisor), Marcelo Câmara (former presidential advisor), Silvinei Vasques (former director of the PRF), Mário Fernandes (reserve general and ex-number 2 of the General Secretariat) and Marília Alencar (former intelligence of the Ministry of Justice).
