The Brazilian Justice system is increasingly closing in on former President Jair Bolsonaro for his apparent coup attempt to prevent the inauguration of Luiz Ináicio Lula da Silva in Brazil after the October 2022 elections.
It was an
unprecedented
avalanche of revelations .
The publication in detail of the preparations for an alleged coup attempt by the far-right leader and his closest allies left the former president more exposed than ever.
Bolsonaro, who calls himself the victim of "persecution", was prevented from leaving Brazil on Thursday, as part of the operation "Tempus veritatis", the hour of truth, in Latin.
Others of his collaborators were subject to raids and some of them arrested.
But above all, it is the
135 pages of the judicial decision
that authorized the operation that had the effect of a bomb in Brazil: it is an
alleged premeditated plan to guarantee that 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 the suspects, including the then Minister of Defense or a soldier expelled from the Armed Forces.
Last week, Justice released a video that was added to the file, which showed, according to investigators, that a "criminal organization" was preparing an "attempted coup d'état" before the 2022 presidential elections in order to keep Bolsonaro in power.
The images, recorded on July 5, 2022, show the then far-right president meeting with several ministers in the presidential palace.
The Federal Police of Brazil, last week, during the operation against Jair Bolsonaro's party for the coup attempt.
Photo: AFP
The discussion among those present addresses the elections that would take place in October, in which the former center-left president Lula da Silva finally 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," Bolsonaro complains, criticizing the Supreme Court, a "superpower that decides everything, many times outside the framework" of the Constitution.
At that time, the president had been questioning the reliability of the electronic ballot box system for months, without ever providing evidence of the alleged "fraud" that was being prepared.
The main ingredient of the police story is the confession (and mobile phone) of the man who probably spent the most time with Bolsonaro while he was president, his
personal secretary, Lieutenant Mauro Cid,
44, according to the
Spanish newspaper
El País
. , days ago.
The soldier appears as a central point in the exchange of information between the suspects in the coup plot.
After four months in prison for falsifying the vaccination card, Lieutenant Cid decided to speak out.
That is the valuable ammunition with which the police accuse the former president and the rest of the suspects.
The violent takeover of the Planalto presidential palace by followers of Jair Bolsonaro, on January 8, 2023. Photo: AFP
The plot
Here, a summary of the events that led to the failed coup attempt by Bolsonaro and his followers, according to the reconstruction carried out by
El País
based on the judicial document.
July 2022: Three months before the elections in which Bolsonaro was seeking re-election and facing 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 leader The right-wing party holds an official meeting in the Planalto palace with ministers and senior officials in which the police see
“a coup dynamic at the top of the government
. ”
On Friday, the judge lifted the secrecy on the video, which immediately hit all the front pages of the press.
The president demanded that his ministers question the security of the electronic ballot boxes like him and suggested that there was a conspiracy to seize power from him: “The guys are preparing everything for Lula to win in the first round, a fraud.
I'm going to show you how and why."
At least one of those present is worried.
“Is the meeting being recorded, president?” asks the Minister of the General Comptroller.
Bolsonaro tells him that he is only going to record his own speech, but
it is evident that the rest of those present were also recorded
.
The video was found by police on a computer that Bolsonaro's secretary kept at home.
The fiery speeches are seasoned with expletives -Bolsonaro uses five in 35 seconds-, football references and war language.
“I am on the line of contact with the enemy,”
says Defense Minister General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, referring to his interactions with the Superior Electoral Court to guarantee that the polls are secure.
And one of the minister generals, Augusto Heleno, head of the secret services, warns: “If we have to hit the table, it is before the elections.
There is no VAR review here (as in football).”
Bolsonaro, in a dramatic tone, proclaims: “I have no doubts about what is happening.
I don't have much proof.
"I am going to go down the ramp from here (the presidential palace) imprisoned for undemocratic acts."
"If we react after the elections there will be chaos in Brazil, a big guerrilla,
the country will burn
," he says later.
The meeting that revealed the plan
July 18, 2022
.
In his campaign against electronic ballot boxes, the president receives foreign ambassadors.
He conveys his doubts about the voting system to them without presenting evidence.
The diplomats attend astonished.
Due to this intervention,
Bolsonaro was disqualified from running for elections until 2030.
October 30, 2022.
Lula wins the closest elections in Brazilian history.
The leader of the Workers' Party obtains
50.9% compared to Bolsonaro's 49.1%.
The next day, tens of thousands of Bolsonaro supporters claim fraud in front of barracks across Brazil.
That night they camp right there.
They demand military intervention.
And there they will remain until the day after the coup attempt, when they are forcibly dismantled.
November 19, 2022.
Three of the accused legal experts meet at the presidential palace with Bolsonaro.
One is the president's special adviser on international affairs;
the other, a Catholic priest.
They bring him
a draft coup decree that contemplates annulling the elections and arresting two judges of the Supreme Court
and the president of the Senate.
The president asks for some modifications.
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 riot and bête noire of Bolsonarism.
On January 8, 2023, a crowd of radical Bolsonaro followers took over the headquarters of the three branches of government in Brasilia.
Photo: AFP
December 7, 2022
.
Bolsonaro summons the leadership of the Armed Forces, Generals Marco Antonio Freire Gomes (Army), Carlos Baptista (Aeronautics) and Admiral Ailton Garnier (Navy), and the Minister of Defense to present the decree with which he intends to dress in
legality which would be a constitutional break
.
The Navy chief embraces the idea.
But his colleagues in the army and air force are hesitant.
The admiral is now
accused of coup plotting
.
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 riot.
Cid tells him that “the president has received several pressures to make a tougher decision, but obviously, where is he going to use his forces?”
And he announces that the president has reduced the coup decree.
That same day, General Theophilo de Oliveira, who was commander of the Army's ground operations, meets with Bolsonaro and, according to the indictment, agrees to join the riot as long as the president signs a decree endorsing it.
December 2022.
Two weeks before Bolsonaro's mandate ends -Lula took office on January 1, 2023- Walter Braga Netto, a reserve general who lost the elections as Bolsonaro's number two and has been a minister, explodes of fury because the head of the Army refuses to join the coup plan.
He takes matters into his own hands, messaging on WhatsApp with a shady soldier expelled from the Army for indiscipline.
“Friend, unfortunately I have to tell you that the fault for what is happening and what is going to happen lies with General Freires Gomes.
There is no room for omission or indecision in a combatant,” writes Braga Netto.
And, when his interlocutor answers: “We are going to offer his head to the lions,” the former minister replies: “he offers his head.
"It's a shit."
Immediately afterwards,
the Bolsonaro digital militias are activated in a campaign against the head of the Army
.
They also attack the head of the Air Force, a “traitor to the country,” in the words of the vice presidential candidate, who orders the shady soldier to deploy a very different campaign (of praise) to the admiral who agreed to participate in the coup.
January 1, 2023.
Lula assumes his third term in a ceremony in Brasilia in which his predecessor does not participate, who traveled to the United States days before so as not to give him the presidential sash.
The massive event takes place with absolute normality.
The former metalworkers union leader is back at the head of state and Bolsonaro is far away.
A week later the country experienced a shock.
January 8, 2023.
In the middle of the New Year holidays throughout the country, under temperatures of more than 30 degrees, Brasilia is deserted.
But thousands of Bolsonaro supporters from the coup camp installed in front of the Army Headquarters, the work of Oscar Niemeyer, descend on the Plaza de los Tres Poderes and assault the heart of Brazilian democracy.
A mob of followers of the former president takes over the seats of Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court of Justice.
They destroy glass and furniture before the impotence of the police who only managed to take control several hours later.
February 8, 2024.
Bolsonaro and 28 other people are
formally accused of cooking a coup attempt.
Four of them, advisors to the previous government, are detained in operation Tempus Veritatis.
The rest, subject to various precautionary measures.
The former president's passport is confiscated and he is prohibited from traveling abroad.
His situation seems increasingly complicated.
Source: agencies and Clarín editorial team
C.B.