Dozens of Brazilians investigated in the police operation investigating the coup attack in Brasilia in 2023 have violated precautionary measures and are fugitives. The Federal Police has identified about 60 who in recent times have fled to neighboring Argentina with the intention of evading justice and taking refuge there under the protection of the president, Javier Milei, a far-right extremist and main regional ally of Bolsonaroism. The police are preparing the list of the fugitives to hand it over to the justice system so that it can begin the procedures for the Government to request their extradition, according to the newspaper this Friday. Folha de S.Paulo without citing any source. The Argentine Executive does not comment on the matter.
Not all fugitives are untraceable. Some have organized a fundraising campaign on social networks to stay on the other side of the border, according to Or Globe. The whereabouts of all these convicted and accused persons is in focus after the Federal Police deployed a broad operation this Thursday to arrest more than 200 people accused of skipping precautionary measures. These restrictions to prevent them from fleeing or destroying evidence are very diverse. From the withdrawal of the passport and the prohibition of leaving the country, in the case of former president Jair Bolsonaro, to wearing electronic anklets, prohibiting speaking with other people under investigation or suspending personal accounts on social networks.
For Bolsonarism, the fugitives are politically persecuted, not criminals, who a friendly government like Argentina’s should welcome as exiles and allow them to live free. Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the former president, and other parliamentarians allied with the leader of the Brazilian right traveled to Buenos Aires at the end of May to defend that thesis.
A good part of Brazilians continue to consider that the Bolsonaristas who bravely entered the headquarters of the three powers were mere vandals and that the harsh sentences imposed by the judges (around 15 years) are disproportionate and out of place.
A journalistic investigation by the UOL portal recently revealed the escape of a dozen defendants with names and surnames who managed to remove their electronic anklets and cross the border to Argentina and Uruguay. Now the police raise that number to about 60 people.
The police and judicial investigation into the violent invasion of thousands of Bolsonaro supporters at the headquarters of the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Presidency on January 8, 2023, shortly after Luis Inácio Lula da Silva began his third term, has led to hundreds actions, arrests, entries into provisional prison, indictments, prosecutions, trials and dozens of convictions. On the radar of the police and the Supreme Court judge handling the case, Alexandre de Moraes, the material authors of the assault, but also the intellectual authors (including former president Jair Bolsonaro, accused by the police of organizing the plot along with several generals), those who organized and paid for the logistics and the commanders of the security forces who ignored their duty and allowed the protesters to advance to the heart of Brazilian democracy without hindrance and carry out a violent attack that, according to the investigating judge, It was an attempted coup d’état.
The only ones who have been tried for now are the material authors of the attack on the three powers, civilians of all ages, from the most varied professions, deeply immersed in the Bolsonaro universe and falsely convinced that Lula was in cahoots with the Supreme Court and the economic elite to steal Bolsonaro’s re-election.
Follow all the information from El PAÍS América in Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.
#Brazilian #Police #suspect #Bolsonaro #supporters #convicted #accused #coup #fled #Argentina