This Thursday, Brazil witnessed a new and extensive police operation related to the coup attack on the headquarters of the three powers carried out by thousands of Bolsonaro supporters on January 8, 2023. The Supreme Court judge leading the investigation, Alexandre de Moraes , has ordered the arrest and imprisonment of 208 people convicted or investigated in relation to the riot, whom it accuses of ignoring precautionary measures or fleeing abroad. Federal Police agents have managed to locate and arrest 49 of those wanted. It is suspected that some of those still at large have escaped to neighboring countries such as Argentina or Uruguay.
Former President Jair Bolsonaro is the highest-profile investigator in this megacase. The police accuse the far-right leader of plotting a coup d’état with a handful of generals to prevent the leftist Lula from returning to power. Justice is still analyzing the evidence and indications collected to decide if he requests the prosecution of him and the alleged hard core of the plot. Meanwhile, and as a precautionary measure, the judge has withdrawn the former president’s passport, so he cannot go abroad, and is prohibited from contacting other investigators.
Efforts to clarify responsibilities for the violent assault on Congress, the Presidency and the headquarters of the Supreme Court continue in several areas. Investigations continue to locate all those involved in perpetrating, financing, instigating or, in the case of security forces, failing to prevent the attack while Supreme Court judges try those accused of violently breaking into buildings and destroying everything. in its wake a week after Lula took office.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, deputy and son of the former president, has complained in X after the police operation. “Preventively detain 208 unconvicted people for believing they can flee to Argentina…” he tweeted along with a video in which, in a victimist tone, a woman draws attention to the arrest of two septuagenarians and shows how “a patriot” says goodbye to his family to return to prison. Stamped, an email to which you can make donations.
So far more than 200 people have been convicted, according to the count. Folha de S.Paulo, for being part of that Bolsonaro crowd dressed in the soccer team’s shirt and national flag at the ready that assaulted the heart of power. During the entire transition since Lula’s victory, they were camped in front of barracks throughout the country demanding that the Armed Forces intervene. That Sunday, January 8, they tried to sow chaos in the Plaza de los Tres Poderes so that the military could enter the scene. They failed. President Lula appointed a public security intervener and neutralized the riot.
Few of the accused who have sat in the dock for these events have been acquitted, among them, a homeless man who managed to convince the judges of the highest court that he did not participate in the coup attempt. The first convicted received exemplary sentences, up to 17 years in prison, by judges who hope that the severity of the punishment will deter potential imitators.
Two days after the assault, more than a thousand Bolsonaro supporters were arrested when the police dismantled the camp in front of the Army headquarters in Brasilia. Most went straight to prison. And in the months since, the judge handling the case has ordered hundreds more arrests. For example, he sent to prison Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s assistant while he was president, and Anderson Torres, who was his Minister of Justice. After several months, both were released with precautionary measures. The leadership of the Military Police of Brasilia also spent a period behind bars but has left prison although the accusation of omission still stands.
Almost a year and a half after the events, polarized Brazil does not even agree on how to describe what happened there. For two thirds of Brazilians it was a mere act of vandalism, for the remaining third it was an attempted coup, according to a Datafolha survey last March. Judge Moraes, who is leading the investigations, shares the minority opinion. That is why he has included the accusations of abolition of the democratic State and attempted coup d’état for the majority of those prosecuted.
Last month, the media UOL identified 10 Bolsonaro supporters involved in the case who had destroyed their electronic anklets and fled to Argentina and Uruguay. Seven of them had already been tried and sentenced. The new president of Argentina, the ultra Javier Milei, is the main ally of Bolsonarism in South America. One of the fugitives has assured that he has requested political asylum in the neighboring country.
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