The conclusion of the Brazilian Federal Police is categorical: ”Bolsonaro was aware of and actively participated” in the coup plot. Once the secrecy of the summary was lifted this Tuesday, the 884 pages detailing the evidence gathered by investigators against the former president are now public. Last week, when the accusation was formalized against the far-right Bolsonaro (who governed between 2019 and 2022) and 36 other people, the general lines of the investigation were known. Now the details have been released, the quotation marks, the screenshots of the Whatsapp messages exchanged between the suspects, the places and circumstances of the many episodes of the failed plot. “The evidence obtained during the investigation unequivocally demonstrates that Jair Messias Bolsonaro planned, acted and had control (…) of the acts carried out by the criminal organization with the aim of carrying out a coup d’état,” the investigators state.
Bolsonaro and 36 other men, most of them military, are accused of violent abolition of the rule of law, among other crimes, for hatching a plot to prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking over from Bolsonaro in power after the ultra lost the elections in 2022 His followers carried out an assault on the headquarters of the three powers in January 2023.
The evidence, which places the previous president at the center of the organizers of the plot, was collected by the Federal Police through searches, interception of communications, bank documentation and the confession of Bolsonaro’s personal secretary during his presidential term (2019-2022). , Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid.
The judge investigating the majority of the cases against the former president and Bolsonarism in general, Alexandre de Moraes, has already sent the complete report to the attorney general of the union, Paulo Gonet, who must decide whether to go ahead and request the prosecution of the accused or files the case.
Bolsonaro assured the press this Monday that he never discussed any plan to carry out an riot. He always repeats that, during his presidential term, he acted “within the four lines of the Constitution.”
The far-right politician remains the head of the Brazilian opposition, although he is disqualified from running for office until 2030. In any case, he acts as if he had a clear path to run in the next presidential elections, scheduled for 2026. The former president is accused in two other cases: for falsifying vaccination certificates during the pandemic and for appropriating some jewelry that the Saudi monarchy gave him.
The objective of the coup plot was, according to the police, to prevent the leftist from assuming a third term and for Bolsonaro to remain in power despite his defeat at the polls. The defendants weighed multiple options to achieve that goal, including assassinating Lula when he was already elected president. The police say that Bolsonaro “had complete knowledge” of the plans for the assassination, which was going to be carried out by soldiers trained in the elite units of the Armed Forces, the so-called black kids (black kids). The Federal Police bases its conclusions on conversations between the alleged coup plotters and recordings of meetings held in the presidential palace.
Among the evidence used by investigators against Bolsonaro, two meetings stand out. One held with ministers, in July 2022, three months before the elections, in which he encouraged them to spread falsehoods about the security of the voting system and alleged fraud. The other meeting was in December, when Lula had already won and was preparing to take office on New Year’s Day. The still president summoned the commanders of the Armed Forces to the presidential palace to propose the coup through a decree to expand the power of the military beyond constitutional limits. The head of the Navy agreed to join the riot, while those of the Army and Aeronautics rejected it, in addition to warning that it was illegal. It was the decision of those two generals, according to the police, that prevented the coup from succeeding.
The police maintain that Bolsonaro’s coup plan began when he assumed the presidency and he insisted on questioning the security of the electronic ballot box, although no large-scale fraud has ever been detected with this system that Brazil has used for more than 25 years.
