Two of the three members of Brazil's military leadership whom then-president Jair Bolsonaro tried to convince at the end of 2022 to accompany him in a coup d'état refused. Both General Marco Antonio Freire Gomes, who was the commander of the Army, and Carlos Baptista, head of the Air Force, confirmed in police interrogations carried out in recent weeks that the far-right politician summoned them on several occasions and proposed different formulas. legal measures that were intended to serve as a guarantee to block the path of the winner of the elections, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leader of the Brazilian left, from returning to the Presidency. The testimonies of both soldiers were known this Friday when the investigating judge in the case against Bolsonaro for coup plotting lifted the secrecy of part of the summary.
This is the first time that Bolsonaro is directly accused of participating in the conspiracy to ignore the electoral results and promote a constitutional break, although wrapped in decrees to give it the appearance of legality. The testimony of both generals further aggravates the judicial situation of the former far-right president, who has several open cases against him. Bolsonaro pleads innocent.
The Army and Aeronautics commanders told their interrogators how they opposed the plans of Bolsonaro, who had a career in the Army up to the rank of captain before entering Congress as a deputy. The first of them even told the then head of state that he would arrest him if he continued with his plans to “attack the democratic regime.” Instead, the head of the Navy embraced the far-right attempt and placed himself at his disposal.
Both generals have been interrogated as part of the investigation into the people who plotted the assault on the institutional heart of the country, in Brasilia, on January 8, 2023, a week after Lula took office as president. Last February, the Federal Police accused the former president of writing a decree to annul the elections. And the judge prohibited him from leaving the country and confiscated his passport after searching the summer house where Bolsonaro was with his family.
The testimony of Generals Freire Gomes and Baptista corroborates the confession of Bolsonaro's private secretary, Lieutenant Mauro Cid, who is the fundamental piece in this case. He was the one who pointed out his former boss and about 30 of his collaborators, including several generals and former ministers.
The former head of the Army told the agents who interrogated him that Bolsonaro, in his capacity as president, presented to the entire military leadership and the Minister of Defense, General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, several documents with different legal instruments prepared in order to prevent Lula's inauguration as president. It was in several meetings called at the last minute after the second round of elections, that Bolsonaro lost by less than two points. The then president even mentioned the possibility of decreeing a state of siege.
The leftist assumed the head of state on January 1, 2023 after an electoral campaign marked by Bolsonaro's systematic attacks on the security of electronic ballot boxes.
After Bolsonaro's defeat, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters camped outside barracks throughout Brazil to demand military intervention, convinced (falsely) that their leader had been robbed of victory at the polls. Although there was not a single indication that pointed in that direction.
The ultra former president insists that, without tanks in the streets or weapons, no coup is worth it. He recently rallied tens of thousands of people in São Paulo in a show of force. In any case, he is disqualified from running in elections until 2030.
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