The former minister and director of Public Security of Brasilia, a key piece of the alleged plot, has turned himself in at the Brasilia airport, accused of “collusion” in the invasion of institutional headquarters
The Federal Police have arrested Anderson Torres, head of Public Security of this city in Brasilia when the assault on the institutional headquarters took place last Sunday, on suspicion of having collaborated in the frustrated coup against the Government of Lula da Silva. The politician had already announced his return to the country from Florida (United States), where he was on the 8th in the company of former President Jair Bolsonaro, now being investigated for the same events, as announced last night by the Supreme Court of Brazil. The two have explained that they were in the US on vacation.
Torres was Minister of Justice during the last stage of Bolsonaro’s term. Included in the investigations for the attack on Congress, the government palace and the headquarters of the Supreme Court in Brasilia, the judge ordered his arrest in the middle of this week. He considers it a key piece to clarify the alleged anti-democratic network that ended with the invasion of the headquarters by thousands of extremists related to Bolsonarism. The veteran politician then announced that he would turn himself in before the Justice and he made it effective this morning when he arrived at the Brasilia airport around 11:30 a.m. (Spanish time) on a flight from Miami. The Federal Police were waiting for him at the terminal, who arrested him and took him to the police station.
The plane in which Torres has returned from Miami lands at the Brasilia airport /
In the next few hours, Anderson is expected to go before the judge. In principle, an accusation for “omission of duty” weighed on him, since a few days before the revolt part of his team was fired and he himself went “on vacation” to Florida. He had held the position of director of Public Security of Brasilia only since January 2 and his appointment caused some surprise given his background as Minister of Justice of the previous Executive and his openly Bolsonaro attitude. The problem now is that he will possibly face much more severe charges, such as “collusion” with the assailants and perhaps worse. The Police searched his house this past Thursday and located a decree proposal focused on reversing the result of the elections that gave victory to Lula da Silva. He has already publicly declared his conviction that there were police and military accomplices to the attackers, whom they even guided to the headquarters of the legislative and judicial powers.
The Trumpist Maneuver
In a maneuver very similar to the one that Donald Trump attempted after being defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential elections, the report bet on invoking article 136 of the Constitution which, in its imaginary, would have allowed the continuity of the Bolsonaro Executive until that a special commission verify if the electoral process had contained irregularities or was legal. The far-right leader would have used the argument that, if this process was not carried out, the “social peace” of the country would be seriously at risk. However, a large part of Brazilian magistrates and jurists affirm that the validity of this strategy is null and its application would have been “unconstitutional” from the first minute, although experts do not doubt that it would have contributed to increasing social conflict and the thesis Bolsonaro that their leader would have been deceived at the polls. The similarities with the Trump case are evident.
Before turning himself in, Anderson released several messages from Miami where he defends his innocence and claims that the controversial report “was leaked out of context.” According to his version, the ministers receive proposals “of the most diverse” during the legislature and this would be one more draft that had been discarded, despite being deposited in a closet in his house. «I respect Brazilian democracy. I have a clear conscience regarding my role as a minister”, he indicated.
The ex-minister is, for the moment, the most relevant charge arrested as a result of the riots in Brasilia. But Justice is now in the footsteps of Jair Bolsonaro himself. The Supreme Court has endorsed the request of the Attorney General’s Office to include the former president in the investigations under the presumption of acting as an intellectual author of the coup attempt. Similar to Donald Trump, the far-right leader could have been betrayed by his penchant for making statements on social media. Prosecutors have presented as evidence a video dated January 10 in which Bolsonaro once again questions the October presidential elections. The recording lasted just a few hours until its author deleted it.
This “pronouncement” would mean that the former president was able to position himself “in an attempt to attack the institutions,” according to the Court, which is still studying whether to summon Bolsonaro for questioning. The ultra leader continues in Florida, although he has announced his intention to return to Brazil due to the abdominal problems he suffers in order to continue being treated by his usual doctors. His lawyer has released a statement in which he denies that Bolsonaro had any connection with the events in Brasilia and attributes the riots to the existence of “infiltrators.”
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