High commanders of the armed forces were involved in the plot, according to the police investigation.
of Brazil previous president Jair Bolsonaro developed a detailed plan to overturn his October 2022 election defeat and seize power, according to police and Supreme Court documents released this week from the investigation, which is still ongoing.
According to new information reported on Thursday, Bolsonaro planned the coup with his inner circle for months, step by step, including financing and logistics.
“It's not just about the misguided dalliances of a single plotter. Actions were coordinated in the presence of several ministers and the president of the republic”, political researcher Geraldo Monteiro From the State University of Rio de Janeiro, the news agency told AFP.
Continuation Bolsonaro, the far-right, lost the closest presidential election in Brazil's history to a leftist Luiz Inácio to Lula da Silva 49.1–50.9 percent.
According to the investigation information reviewed by the Brazilian media and news agencies, Bolsonaro intended to harness the ministers of his government in a disinformation campaign to question the election result and pressure high-ranking officers to command the soldiers to intervene in the transfer of power. According to the police Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Almir Garnier and commander of army ground operations Estevam Theophilo were involved in the plot.
According to the investigation, former army captain Bolsonaro personally prepared the decree on the re-election. The draft was presented to high military commanders a good month after the election, less than a month before Lula's inauguration.
In addition, according to the investigation, the purpose was to arrest the judge of the Supreme Court, the chief judge of the election court Alexandre de Moraes.
“The company was extremely dangerous, but it was poorly organized because the cart was driven before the horse”, political researcher Eduardo Grin From the Fundação Getulio Vargas Research Institute described for the Financial Times.
“They wanted to make a coup first and then find people to support it.”
A plan was ultimately not implemented.
The Financial Times listed the reasons that Bolsonaro did not believe in sufficient support in the armed forces, Lula's election victory was quickly recognized throughout the Brazilian political field, and the United States publicly and privately warned Bolsonaro not to try to cling to power.
Bolsonaro denies the existence of the plan.
Thursday four of Bolsonaro's aides were arrested, but he himself only had to surrender his passport.
“Since he is an influential political figure, it is better to wait for charges and a verdict before arresting him,” a police source reasoned, according to the Reuters news agency.
“Preventive detention would provide a lot of room for claims of political persecution.”
Lulawho led Brazil for the first time from 2003 to 2010, returned to the presidency from the beginning of 2023.
A week after Lula's inauguration, Bolsonaro's supporters rushed to the presidential palace, the congress house and the supreme court, causing immeasurable destruction in the center of Brazilian power. They called for armed forces to prevent Lula's reign.
Bolsonaro was sown instilling in the minds of his supporters unfounded doubts about the reliability of Brazil's electoral system long before the elections. Based on that, Bolsonaro was sentenced already last June to an eight-year ban from office, which means that he cannot try to return to the presidency in the 2026 or 2030 elections.
Now he is more likely to face imprisonment.
The police said that Bolsonaro can expect criminal charges for “attempted coup” and “overturning the democratic rule of law”. The Supreme Court has sentenced 14 to 17 years in prison for these crimes to people who took part in the riot in the center of power in Brasília.
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