In late November, Brazil's federal police formally charged former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 others with plotting a coup to keep him in office. In its 884-page report, the agency outlined a multi-step plan supported by evidence and testimony.
The plan included systematically instilling distrust in the electoral system among the population, drafting legislation that provided a veneer of legal basis for the plan, pressuring military leaders to comply with the plan, and It included inciting riots in the capital.
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Prosecutor General Paulo Gone will now examine each person's involvement in various parts of the alleged conspiracy before deciding whether to formally indict the accused parties, abandon the investigation, and who to bring to trial on what charges. will decide whether to seek further evidence to understand its participation. Bolsonaro and key allies deny any wrongdoing or involvement and accuse authorities of political persecution.
Former President Jair Bolsonaro arrives to speak to reporters at the airport in Brasilia, Brazil, on Monday, November 25, 2024, after being formally charged by federal police with a coup attempt. (AP Photo/Eraldo Perez)
Below is a breakdown of the key elements of the plan outlined in the report and how they are thought to be related.
Doubts grow over Brazil's voting system
Police claim that efforts to spread fake news about Brazil's electronic voting system began in 2019, Bolsonaro's first year in office, but became more strategic and focused as his 2022 re-election approached. are.
Police say a so-called “digital militia” made up of thousands of social media accounts linked to pro-Bolsonaro propaganda, as well as other prominent right-wing influencers and politicians, could potentially tamper with the voting system. They announced that they had spread propaganda claiming that Bolsonaro also openly expressed his admiration for Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-1985), claiming it saved the country from communism.
The story of an impending unfair election defeat continues as Bolsonaro has rallied tens of thousands of his supporters to take part in multiple street demonstrations and to camp outside military barracks and headquarters to pressure leaders. He gathered many supporters to support his cause.
Three months before the election, Bolsonaro invited dozens of diplomats to the presidential palace for a nationally televised meeting during which he presented no evidence of alleged weaknesses in the voting system. I presented it without any problem.
Following Bolsonaro's defeat in 2022 to the left-wing Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, his Liberal Party questioned the results at the country's highest electoral court, demanding that voting equipment manufactured in a particular year He argued that he may have been condoning the fraud. The Electoral Tribunal immediately dismissed the complaint.
“They disseminated false research through the Liberal Party about the vulnerabilities of electronic voting machines in order to create a factual basis for an executive order inciting a coup,” the report said.
Draft Decree to Launch a Coup
In January 2023, Brazilian police discovered a draft law in the home of Anderson Torres, a former justice minister in the Bolsonaro administration. Police say this was one of many versions drafted on the orders or with the knowledge of far-right leaders. On December 7, the former president submitted the unsigned document to the commanders of the three military divisions, asking for their support.
Investigators said the draft executive order was designed to allow Bolsonaro and his allies to move forward in October 2022 with the possibility of later suspending the powers of the nation's highest electoral court and potentially calling new elections. It said it was an indication that he was aiming to set up a commission to investigate possible irregularities and crimes in Monday's vote.
The report said Navy commanders were prepared to comply with the order, but army and air force leaders opposed any plans to block Lula from taking office. Witnesses who spoke to investigators say these refusals were the reason the plan didn't move forward.
Many legal experts say the evidence that the former president presented a draft to military leaders and supported different versions of the document is highly damaging.
“(The aim) was to unlawfully interfere in the election,” said Luis Enrique Machado, a law professor at IDP University in the capital Brasilia. “In Brazil, the Electoral Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Electoral Court have the final say on electoral law.''
In an interview with the website UOL published on Thursday, Bolsonaro said he had discussed measures with military leaders, including the declaration of a state of emergency and other exceptional measures to suspend the rule of law in the public interest. said. He said there was nothing unseemly about evaluating options since such measures are provided for in the Constitution.
“What is being said is ridiculous. For me, I have never discussed a coup,” Bolsonaro told reporters in Brasilia on Monday.
plan to assassinate the next president
On November 19, Brazil's Federal Police arrested four military special operations officers and a federal police officer on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Lula, Vice President-elect Gerardo Alcumin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes in 2022. One person was arrested. All of the men arrested were listed in a police report that was later unsealed.
Police said the assassination plot was aimed at leaving Bolsonaro's ticket as the only valid ticket remaining in the 2022 run-off. As for Mr. de Moraes, he led a five-year investigation into fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices that resulted in some far-right allies and supporters being banned from social media and even jailed. In early 2023, the country's Supreme Electoral Court declared Bolsonaro disqualified as president until 2030 for abuse of power related to meetings he convened with foreign ambassadors to spread lies about the voting system. He served as the presiding judge.
Investigators added that Gen. Walter Braga Netto, Bolsonaro's 2022 presidential candidate and former defense minister, gave the go-ahead for the assassination plot in a meeting with the conspirators in his home. Federal police describe the retired general as one of the leaders of the plot and also involved in pressuring military leaders to sign the coup.
Braga Netto said in a statement Tuesday that he had never planned a coup. He added that some of the documents seized from one of his aides, including “documents, drafts, and media reports,” were “preparatory material in response to media requests and in preparation for testimony in Congressional hearings.”
The police report contains no indication that a plot to assassinate Lula or Alkmin was carried out. However, investigators found messages and documents indicating that the conspirators were monitoring and following Demoulaes at the time.
Police said they had found evidence that retired Brig. General Mario Fernández, one of the arrested officers and interim presidential secretary general, also visited protest camps outside military facilities, including the military headquarters in Brasilia. Investigators said there was evidence that he directed and financed protesters.
1.8 uprising
Federal police have implicated Bolsonaro and some of his ministers in the January 8, 2023 riots. The riots saw many of the former president's supporters camp outside the military headquarters for months, and the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace in Brasilia were looted.
Demonstrators had implored the military to bar the left-wing leader from office, and their uprising after Lula took office was an attempt to force military intervention to oust the new president. , the police announced.
The violence was described in the report as one of “other actions to pressure military commanders to participate in the coup.” Police also said that Brig. In November 2022, General Fernández sent a message to then-army commander General Marco Antonio Freire Gómez discussing the need for a “triggering event” for a coup.
Defendants, including Bolsonaro, have argued that the riot was an isolated incident, and many legal experts say there is scant evidence in the report to link it to a broader conspiracy. .
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“It is clear that the alleged coup leaders were in contact with people who were camped outside the barracks and who were there on January 8th. But how much of that contact was Did those people on that day turn into a plan, coordination or incitement to occupy a public building? That should be discussed and will be discussed in the process of collecting further evidence,” said a detective from the Federal University of Fluminense. said João Pedro Padua, professor of law and litigation. in Rio de Janeiro.
Mr. Bolsonaro left for the United States a few days before Mr. Lula's inauguration on January 1, 2023, and stayed for three months, keeping a low profile. Police reports claim he was waiting out the aftermath of the riot to avoid possible jail time in connection with the coup plot.
