Former Brazilian President Jair
Bolsonaro
admitted this Friday to having sent 800,000 reais (about $163,265) to an account in the United States shortly before concluding his term, but alleged that he did so out of fear of the economic policy that his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula, would adopt. da Silva.
The far-right leader made the clarification in a video he published on his social networks after
the press leaked a document
according to which the Federal Police suspects that the former president intended to use the resources to finance his stay in the United States
while awaiting
a possible coup. State
in Brazil.
Federal Police officers leave the Liberal Party headquarters during a search operation.
Photo: Xinhua
"The press has been saying that, according to the Federal Police, in December 2022 I sent 800,000 reais to the United States waiting for a coup.
Send yes
," said the former president, who is being investigated for his alleged participation, as a mentor, in the coup attempt on January 8, 2023 against Lula.
Bolsonaro clarified that the transfer
was made from his savings account
in the state-owned Banco do Brasil to a branch of the same entity in the United States, so, he said, the money was kept in a Brazilian bank.
"Sending money abroad is not a crime in Brazil"
He added that
sending money abroad is not a crime in Brazil
and that in 2023 alone, Brazilians transferred $2.1 billion to accounts in other countries.
The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, complicated.
Photo: EVARISTO SA / AFP
"And they did it, as did I, because we had
doubts about the politics and economics
of the current left-wing president," he said.
"I wanted to tell our beloved Federal Police that the last country in the world where a dictator or a coup plotter would send money is to the United States because it is a democratic country that respects treaties, so those resources
would be immediately blocked
," he assured the deny the accusations.
According to the former head of state, dictators
usually send their resources to tax havens
and not to the United States.
According to the Federal Police, the transfer
was made on December 27, 2022
, five days before Lula assumed his third term as president of Brazil and three days before Bolsonaro traveled to Miami to avoid having to hand over the presidential sash to his successor.
The Supreme Court magistrate investigating the possible participation of the former president in the coup attempt and in the alleged planning of a coup in the last months of 2022 ordered last week that Bolsonaro
You will hand over your passport to the authorities to prevent your possible departure from the country.
Federal police operation in the case being carried out by Justice for an attempted coup d'état in Brazil.
Photo: Sergio Lima / AFP
A notorious police operation after which Bolsonaro was ordered to hand over his passport was carried out on February 8 and also led to the arrest of four important figures of the extreme right.
According to the investigation, the hard core of Bolsonarism
discussed the possibility of preventing Lula's inauguration
after the elections that he won in October 2022.
This conspiracy, although it did not come to fruition, would have then led the leadership of the extreme right to encourage the violent assault on the headquarters of the three branches of government that occurred on January 8, 2023, which, according to Justice, was intended purpose to force a "military intervention" to overthrow Lula's Government.
With information from EFE