Brasilia's Military Police Leadership Arrested for Allowing Bolsonarist Assault on the Heart of Power

Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro during the protest outside Brazil's National Congress in Brasilia.ADRIANO MACHADO (REUTERS)

The commander of the Military Police of Brasilia, Klepter Rosa Gonçalves, has been arrested this Friday along with six other members of the dome of the body accused of knowingly failing in their duty to prevent the assault of thousands of Bolsonaristas to the headquarters of the Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court on January 8. The Prosecutor's Office maintains in its complaint that "there was ideological harmony between the accused and those who advocated an intervention of the Armed Forces" to overthrow the newly elected Government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated the far-right Jair Bolsonaro at the polls.

The seven chiefs of the Military Police arrested this morning by federal agents are accused of such serious crimes as violent abolition of the rule of law and attempted coup, as well as damage to property and omission of duty. "They shared coup-plotting messages with each other at least since the elections with questions about the legitimacy of the electoral process," according to the State Attorney General's Office.

For Eduardo Heleno, professor at the Institute of Strategic Studies of the Fluminense Federal University, this operation "clearly demonstrates the participation of sectors of the Military Police and the Armed Forces in the conspiracy for the coup attempt, it shows to what extent Bolsonaro's political action and discourse eroded the institutionality of the security forces and Bolsonaro's participation in the entire plot is increasingly evident." The analyst stresses that the investigation opens "a unique opportunity to reevaluate the role of the military and the functions of the Armed Forces" and stresses that solving this case "is fundamental to recover democracy and perfect it."

Klépter Rosa in a file image. PMDF

The siege around Bolsonaro is tightening. Disqualified, he will not be able to stand for election in eight years. The police have announced that they will investigate his financial movements and those of his wife, and every day revelations emerge about his alleged maneuvers, whether to attack the electoral process or to sell the jewels that Saudi Arabia gave him in his capacity as president.

From the very day of the assault on Brasilia, there were suspicions of the complicity of the security forces, who even escorted the Bolsonaristas in their initially peaceful march from a camp at the Army headquarters to the Plaza de los Tres Poderes. And when it led to a full-blown invasion, most agents remained unmoved. That Sunday, the first decision of President Lula, who had been in office for seven days, was to temporarily dismiss the governor of the Federal District and his secretary of Public Security, a police commissioner named Anderson Torres who had just occupied that same portfolio in the Bolsonaro Government.

Torres, who on the day of the assault was in Florida, like former President Bolsonaro, was arrested on his return and, after several months imprisoned, is under house arrest.

Practically all the Bolsonarist troops that starred in the assault have already been formally accused. More than a thousand people will sit on the bench on a date that has not yet been decided. A minority remain in prison.

Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia. ADRIANO MACHADO (REUTERS)

In Brazil, the Military Police is the body that is deployed on the streets and is responsible for public security. They number more than 400,000 agents and depend on the governors of their states. And for Bolsonaro they have always been one of his most important voting grounds. Since he was a deputy, he took pains to defend the corporate interests of the rank and file soldiers of the Armed Forces and the agents of the military police.

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