Jair Bolsonaro’s coup plan: the revelations that corner the former president of Brazil

Brazil’s justice system is increasingly closing in on former President Jair Bolsonaro over his apparent coup attempt to prevent Luiz Ináicio Lula da Silva from taking office in Brazil after the October 2022 elections.

Era an avalanche of revelations Without precedents. The detailed publication of preparations for an alleged coup attempt by the far-right leader and his closest allies has left the former president more exposed than ever.

Bolsonaro, who describes himself as a victim of “persecution”, was prevented from leaving Brazil on Thursday as part of operation “Tempus veritatis”, the hour of truth, in Latin. Other collaborators of his were searched and some of them arrested.

But above all they are 135 pages of court decision who authorized the operation that had the effect of a bomb in Brazil: it is an alleged premeditated plan to ensure Bolsonaro remained in power.

The document is based on the confession of a witness with privileged access to the previous president. It includes screenshots of compromising WhatsApp conversations between suspects, including the then defense minister or a soldier expelled from the armed forces.

Last week, Justice released a video, added to the dossier, which showed, according to investigators, that a “criminal organization” was preparing a “coup attempt” before the 2022 presidential elections to keep Bolsonaro in power.

The images, recorded on July 5, 2022, show the then far-right president meeting several ministers in the presidential palace.

The discussion among those present concerns the elections that were to be held in October, in which the former centre-left president Lula da Silva ultimately won by a narrow margin.

During the meeting the atmosphere is visibly tense and Bolsonaro often raises his voice and insults.

“They are preparing everything for Lula to win in the first round with fraud”, complains Bolsonaro, criticizing the Supreme Court, “a superpower that decides everything, many times outside the framework” of the Constitution.

At the time, the president had been questioning the reliability of the electronic ballot system for months, without ever providing evidence of the alleged “fraud” that was brewing.

The main ingredient of the detective story is the confession (and cell phone) of the man who probably spent the most time with Bolsonaro while he was president, his private secretary, lieutenant Mauro Cid, 44 years old, according to the newspaper Villagefrom Spain, days ago.

The soldier appears as a central point in the exchange of information between the coup suspects. After four months in prison for falsifying his vaccination card, Lieutenant Cid decided to speak out. These are the precious ammunition with which the police accuse the former president and the rest of the suspects.

The plot

Here, in summary, are the events that led to the failed coup d’état of Bolsonaro and his followers, according to the reconstruction carried out by Village on the basis of the judicial document.

July 2022: Three months before the elections in which Bolsonaro sought re-election and faced his great rival Lula da Silva – back in the political arena after spending 19 months in prison for a conviction in a corruption case – the party leader right-wing holds an official meeting at Palazzo Planalto with ministers and high officials in which the police participates “a coup dynamic at the top of the government”.

On Friday the judge lifted the secret on the video, which immediately made the front pages of the press. The president demanded that his ministers question the security of the electronic ballot boxes like him and insinuated that there was a plot to take away his power: “The boys are preparing everything for Lula to win in the first round, a fraud. I’ll show you how and why.”

At least one of those present is worried. “Is the meeting being recorded, President?” asks the Minister of General Control. Bolsonaro tells him that only his speech will be recorded, but It is clear that the others present were also recorded. The video was found by police on a computer that Bolsonaro’s secretary kept at home.

The fiery speeches are peppered with expletives – Bolsonaro uses five in 35 seconds -, football references and war language. “I am on the line of contact with the enemy.”says the Minister of Defense, General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, referring to his interactions with the Superior Electoral Court to ensure the security of the elections.

And one of the general ministers, Augusto Heleno, head of the secret services, warns: “If we have to come to the table, it is before the elections. Here (as in football) there is no VAR review.”

Bolsonaro, in a dramatic tone, proclaims: “I have no doubts about what is happening. I don’t have much proof. “He will go down the ramp from here (the presidential palace) to prison for anti-democratic acts.”

“If we react after the elections there will be chaos in Brazil, a great guerrilla war, the country will burn“he says later.

The meeting that revealed the plan

July 18, 2022. In his campaign against electronic ballots, the president receives foreign ambassadors. He expresses his doubts about the voting system without presenting evidence. The diplomats look on in amazement. Because of that surgery, Bolsonaro has been disqualified from running until 2030.

October 30, 2022. Lula wins the closest elections in Brazilian history. The leader of the Workers’ Party gets 50.9% against Bolsonaro’s 49.1%. The next day, tens of thousands of Bolsonaro supporters denounce the fraud in front of barracks across Brazil. That night they camp right there. They are calling for military intervention. And there they will remain until the day after the coup attempt, when they will be forcibly dismantled.

November 19, 2022. Three of the accused legal experts meet with Bolsonaro in the presidential palace. One is the Special Advisor to the President on International Affairs; the other, a Catholic priest. They bring it a draft coup decree that provides for the annulment of the elections and the arrest of two Supreme Court judges and the president of the Senate. The president asks for some changes.

Days later he receives a new version that includes new elections and the arrest of Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court judge who is leading the investigation into the failed uprising and the bête noire of Bolsonarism.

December 7, 2022. Bolsonaro summons the leaders of the Armed Forces, generals Marco Antonio Freire Gomes (Army), Carlos Baptista (Air Force) and Admiral Ailton Garnier (Navy), and the Minister of Defense to present the decree with which tries to mask what would be a constitutional break with legality. The Navy chief embraces the idea. But his Army and Air Force colleagues are hesitant.

The admiral is now accused of coup d’état.

December 9, 2022. Bolsonaro’s private secretary sends an audio to the head of the Army. It is a new attempt to convince him to participate in the revolt. Cid tells him that “the president has received several pressures to make a tougher decision, but obviously, where will he use his strengths?” And he announces that the president has reduced the coup decree.

That same day, General Theophilo de Oliveira, commander of the army’s ground operations, met with Bolsonaro and, according to the indictment, agreed to join the uprising on the condition that the president signs a decree approving it.

December 2022. Two weeks after the end of Bolsonaro’s mandate – Lula took office on January 1, 2023 – Walter Braga Netto, reserve general who lost the elections as Bolsonaro’s number two and was a minister, explodes with anger because the head of ‘Army refuses to join coup plan.

He takes matters into his own hands, sending WhatsApp messages to a shady soldier expelled from the army for indiscipline. “Friend, unfortunately I have to tell you that the blame for what is happening and what will happen lies with General Freires Gomes. There is no room for omission or indecision in a fighter,” writes Braga Netto. And, when his interlocutor replies: “We will offer his head to the lions”, the former minister replies: “Offer his head. “It’s bullshit.”

Then, The Bolsonarist digital militias are active in a campaign against the head of the Army. They also attack the head of the air force, a “traitor of the homeland”, in the words of the vice-presidential candidate, who orders the shady soldier to deploy a very different (praise) campaign than the admiral who agreed to participate in the operation. the coup.

January 1, 2023. Lula assumes his third mandate in a ceremony in Brasilia in which his predecessor, who had gone to the United States days earlier to avoid giving him the presidential sash, did not participate. The imposing event takes place with absolute normality. The former leader of the metalworkers’ union has returned to the helm of the state and Bolsonaro is far away. A week later the country suffered a shock.

January 8, 2023. In the midst of the New Year holidays across the country, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees, Brasilia is deserted. But thousands of Bolsonaro supporters, coming from the coup camp set up in front of the Army headquarters, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, descend on the Plaza de los Tres Poderes and attack the heart of Brazilian democracy.

A crowd of followers of the former president takes over the seats of Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court of Justice. They smashed glass and furniture in the face of the impotence of the police who managed to regain control only a few hours later.

February 8, 2024. Bolsonaro and 28 other people are formally accused of planning a coup attempt. Four of them, advisors to the previous government, are detained in Operation Tempus Veritatis. The rest, except for various precautionary measures. The former president has his passport confiscated and is banned from traveling abroad. Their situation seems increasingly complicated.

Source: Clarín agencies and editorial staff