Serious accusation by a senator against Jair Bolsonaro: “He tried to put pressure on me to carry out a coup”

Brazilian Senator Marcos do Val, who until recently was close to former President Jair Bolsonaro, launched a scathing accusation Thursday, which deepened the rift dividing the country into two enemy camps.

Do Val, of the centre-right Podemos party, said the former president tried to persuade him to carry out a coup and not acknowledging victory by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the October elections.

“I got angry when they called me a Bolsonarista. You are waiting for me to drop a ‘bomb’. It will appear in the (magazine) on Friday See Bolsonaro’s attempt to convince me to coup with him,” the senator said in a video via social media.

The legislator assured that he had rejected Bolsonaro’s request. “I say this so that you have an idea (of ex-President Bolsonaro’s attitude) and it is logical that you denounce him,” he remarked.​

Subsequently, in another message through his networks, Do Val said he was “sick of the pressure” and disillusioned with politics, which is why he will “definitely” abandon it and step down from the term of senator he has until 2026. He also alleged family and health reasons after “four years of exclusive dedication” and a heart attack.

“I have lost coexistence with my family, especially with my daughter. It was not worth being transparent, honest and fighting for a better Brazil and without the attacks and offenses that continue to occur,” said the senator, who announced which will make him return to the United States, where he lived.

The deputy’s statement came after the 513 deputies and a third of the senators elected in October took possession of their seats and the victory of Lula who got his ally Rodrigo Pacheco re-elected to the presidency of the Senate.

Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since the end of December with no intention of returning to Brazil, has so far not recognized Lula’s victory in the October runoff and is under investigation for the January 8 coup in Brasilia. .

That day, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters, who had been camping for more than two months in front of the army headquarters demanding military intervention to overthrow Lula, invaded and destroyed the seats of the three powers: the Presidency, Congress and the Federal Supreme Court.

More than 1,800 people have been arrested for anti-democratic acts and a third remain arrested by order of the Supreme Court.

Former deputy in prison

Meanwhile, former deputy Daniel Silveira, one of the most representative figures of the Brazilian far right, sentenced to eight years in prison and pardoned by Bolsonaro, was arrested again this Thursday.

The Federal Police reported that Silveira’s arrest was ordered by the Supreme Court, because he did not comply with the precautionary measures which forced him to use an electronic anklet and prevented him from demonstrating on social networks, in which in recent years has reached threaten to kill several magistrates.

The former lawmaker has been in prison three times, but on all those occasions he was released thanks to various appeals presented by his lawyers.

Finally, because of those threats and theirs repeated calls for a coup to “shut down” Parliament and the Supreme Court but keep Bolsonaro in power, Silveira was sentenced to eight years in prison in April last year.

However, then-President Bolsonaro gave him an advantage a controversial pardonissued 24 hours after the sentence.

Silveira was a senatorial candidate in last October’s elections, but did not win enough support at the polls.

He kept his seat in the Chamber of Deputies until this Wednesday, when a new legislature began he lost his privileges, whereupon the Supreme Court ordered his arrest for violating precautionary measures which, even with the pardon, have remained in place.

For the past four years, Silveira has been aligned with the most radical sectors of Bolsonaro’s far rightthose responsible for the assassination attempt on January 8.

Source: EFE and ANSA

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