Brazilian police question Bolsonaro about the coup attempt, who remains silent

Jair Bolsonaro, the retired military man who presided over Brazil between 2019 and 2022, was questioned this Thursday by the federal police in Brasilia about the attempted coup d'état of which he is accused along with twenty collaborators.

The former president and 22 other suspects, including several reserve generals and other lower-ranking soldiers, were summoned to appear at the same time at police stations in several cities.

Bolsonaro and other defendants have exercised their right to remain silent.

The former president's lawyer has said that he "does not fear anything because he has done nothing" and added that he "never had sympathy for any coup movement."

The far-right has called his followers to a large event in São Paulo this Sunday to reject accusations that he considers absolutely unfounded and part of a political-judicial persecution.

An evangelical pastor will pay for the act.

Maintaining silence is the strategy chosen by Bolsonaro's defense in the face of the judge's refusal to give him access to all the evidence that exists against him.

The former president requested to know in detail the confession of Lieutenant Mauro Cid, who while he was president was his private secretary.

Cid's mobile phone, full of messages, audios and documents now included in the investigation, has proven especially valuable.

The police also located on a computer in Lieutenant Cid's home a draft coup decree that contemplated the arrest of Supreme Court Judge Alexander de Moraes, who is directing the main investigations against Bolsonaroism.

The former president presented three requests for the interrogation to be postponed, but all of them were rejected by Judge Moraes, the same one who is investigating the violent assault by thousands of Bolsonaro supporters at the headquarters of the three powers in Brasilia.

Dozens of the material authors of that violent-festive invasion have been sentenced to harsh sentences in recent months.

But only now have the alleged instigators and masterminds become targets of the police.

Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices are accused of trying to prevent the return of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to power by drafting a coup decree, with pressure on the leadership of the Armed Forces, disinformation campaigns on social networks to erode the credibility of the system. of voting and incentives for thousands of Bolsonaro supporters to remain camped outside barracks throughout the country during the transition of power, demanding military intervention against Lula.

As a precautionary measure in this case, Bolsonaro is prohibited from traveling outside Brazil and the police have confiscated his passport.

The Supreme Court and the police are also investigating several generals, an admiral as well as other soldiers and civilians.

Four of them have been in preventive detention for a couple of weeks.

The one on Sunday on Paulista Avenue, the main political scene of São Paulo, will be the first major rally that Bolsonaro has participated in since he lost the elections to Lula.

Throughout this time he has participated in small political events, although a few months ago the judges disqualified him from running for election until 2030. Several allied governors have announced their presence at the event, including São Paulo's Tarcisio de Freitas, one of the better placed to succeed Bolsonaro as leader of the Brazilian right if he were to be completely removed from the political front line.

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