Criminal Investigation: The Plot Against Democracy and Coup Attempt

2024-02-13 06:34:13

One of the main protagonists of this plot is Mauro Cid, who was a close collaborator of Bolsonaro during his Government and who is now a collaborator of justice after spending four months in prison.

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The evidence against Bolsonaro includes screenshots of WhatsApp conversations between the accused and a key video.

Brazilian Army Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, aide-de-camp to former President Jair Bolsonaro, gestures as he speaks during his testimony before the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on July 11, 2023. (EVARISTO SA/AFP).

/ EVARISTO SA

The video, which is in the possession of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil, is from an old meeting of the Government leadership in which Bolsonaro calls to “do something” before the 2022 presidential elections.

The extensive investigation by the federal police, originated after the attacks by Bolsonaro supporters against the buildings of the State powers in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, is led by Supreme Magistrate Alexandre de Moraes, who authorized the release of the video after that certain extracts were published in Brazilian media.

This is what is known about the case.

Jair Bolsonaro speaks to the press at the Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport in Brasilia on June 30, 2023. (Photo by Sergio Lima/AFP).

/ SERGIO LIMA

The telltale video

On July 5, 2022, three months before the elections, Bolsonaro held an official meeting at the Planalto palace with ministers and senior officials. This appointment was recorded on video.

At the beginning, the Minister of the Comptroller General asked Bolsonaro if the meeting was being recorded, to which the president responded that only his own speech would be recorded. However, as the Spanish newspaper El País indicates, the rest of the attendees were also recorded.

“Everyone here (…) has something to lose. We cannot let the elections arrive and what is being painted happen (…). We are going to have to do something first,” Bolsonaro said during the meeting.

The former president, in line with other known statements of his, complained about the electoral process and maintained that it is being unfairly tilted against him. He then stated that if there is no “reaction” before the elections, “chaos” will be unleashed in the country, a “great guerrilla”, and a “bonfire.”

Bolsonaro also accused several judges of the Supreme Federal Court of being “preparing everything” for Lula da Silva to fraudulently win in the first round of the elections on October 2, 2022.

“I am on the line of contact with the enemy,” then-Defense Minister General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira said at another time, referring to his interactions with the Superior Electoral Court to ensure that the polls are secure.

Former Brazilian Defense Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira gestures during the 15th Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas (CDMA) in Brasilia, July 26, 2022. (Photo by EVARISTO SA / AFP).

/ EVARISTO SA

While one of the minister generals, Augusto Heleno, then head of the secret services, said: “If we have to hit the table, it is before the elections. There is no VAR review here [como en el fútbol]”.

Former Brazilian army general Augusto Heleno testifies before the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry investigating the January 8 riots in Brazil. (Photo by EVARISTO SA / AFP).

/ EVARISTO SA

The video was on Mauro Cid’s computer.

Already before that meeting, as the American newspaper The New York Times recalls, Bolsonaro had publicly begun to sow doubts about the security of his country’s electoral systems, of electronic voting machines, and had warned that, if he lost, It would be because of fraud.

The decree for the coup d’état

According to the indictment published on Thursday, on November 19, 2022, after losing the elections with Lula and two months before handing over power, Filipe Martins, one of Bolsonaro’s main advisors, brought him a draft of a document legal in which it was stated that the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil had illegally interfered in the affairs of the Executive Branch. The document ordered the arrest of two supreme judges and the president of the Senate and called for new presidential elections, according to the federal police.

The NYT indicates that Bolsonaro ordered changes to that document so that only one of the supreme judges, Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who is currently overseeing investigations into Bolsonaro and his allies, was detained.

The president of the Superior Electoral Court, Alexandre de Moraes, gestures during the start of the trial of Jair Bolsonaro, accused of abuse of power and disinformation, on June 22, 2023. (Photo by EVARISTO SA / AFP).

/ EVARISTO SA

Once the document was updated, on December 7, 2022, the then president summoned the leadership of the Armed Forces, generals Marco Antonio Freire Gomes (Army), Carlos Baptista (Air Force) and Admiral Ailton Garnier (Navy). to the presidential residence to present the brief and pressure for a coup d’état, the police said.

Jair Bolsonaro and Navy Commander Almir Garnier arrive to attend military exercises at the Formosa Instruction Center in the state of Goias, 100 km from Brasilia, on August 16, 2021. (Photo by EVARISTO SA / AFP) .

/ EVARISTO SA

“El País” indicates that the head of the Navy supported Bolsonaro’s idea. While the Army and Air Force commanders reject it.

Admiral Garnier is currently accused of coup plotting. The police seized his phone and documents.

On December 9, 2022, Mauro Cid sent an audio to the head of the Army where he tries to convince him to participate in the attempted coup d’état. He tells her that “the president has received several pressures to make a tougher decision, but obviously, where is he going with the force?” And he announces that the president has reduced the coup decree.

That same day, El País indicates, General Estevam Theophilo Gaspar de Oliveira, then commander of the Army’s ground operations, meets with Bolsonaro and agrees to join the coup as long as the president signs a decree endorsing it.

Estevam Theophilo Gaspar de Oliveira.

According to the police, Estevam Theophilo would be the one who would lead the coup troop, and that members of the special forces—the kids pretos (kids in black)—would be in charge of arresting Judge De Moraes.

The document made public last week also reveals that two of Bolsonaro’s advisors had been monitoring De Moraes to arrest him as soon as the arrest warrant is issued.

De Moraes has stated that the precision of the advisors when it came to knowing his agenda suggested that they could have been using technology to monitor him.

Brazil’s then Defense Minister Braga Netto speaks with soldiers during military exercises on August 16, 2021. (Photo by EVARISTO SA / AFP).

/ EVARISTO SA

On December 15, 2022, Walter Braga Netto, a general in the reserve, communicates via WhatsApp with a 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.

“We are going to offer his head to the lions,” responds his interlocutor.

“He offers his head. “It’s a mess,” says Walter Braga Netto.

Then, the army of Bolsonaro trolls activates a campaign against the head of the Army. They also attack the head of the Air Force.

That same December 15, El País maintains, Mauro Cid exchanged WhatsApp messages with a special forces colonel whom he asked about the whereabouts of “the teacher.” His interlocutor responded that “for now he only returns to Brasilia to take possession of the thief.” [en referencia a Lula]”. Investigators maintain that the teacher is Judge De Moraes, who was being followed.

Bolsonaro has denied the accusations: “There was never a coup attempt in Brazil during my government,” he said in an interview with the Record News channel broadcast on Friday night of last week.

Takeover, attempted coup and arrests

On January 1, 2023, Lula da Silva assumed power in Brazil in a ceremony in which Bolsonaro, who days before had gone to Florida, United States, did not participate.

The Plaza of the three powers of Brazil. (AFP).

Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro invade the National Congress in Brasilia on January 8, 2023. (Photo by Sergio Lima/AFP).

/ SERGIO LIMA

On January 8, 2023, thousands of radical Bolsonaro supporters who spent months in the coup camp set up in front of the Army Headquarters to demand a military coup d’état, took over the Three Powers Square in Brasilia and assaulted the Congress buildings. the Supreme Federal Court and the Presidency.

Finally, on Thursday of last week Bolsonaro and 28 other people were formally accused of plotting an attempted coup d’état. Four of them were arrested, while the former president’s passport was confiscated and he was prohibited from leaving the country.

On July 18, 2022, in his campaign against electronic voting,

Bolsonaro received foreign ambassadors to express his doubts about the voting system without presenting evidence. Due to this intervention, he was disqualified from running for office until 2030.

Federal police agents leave the headquarters of the Liberal Party during an operation targeting some of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s top advisors on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Sergio Lima/AFP).

/ SERGIO LIMA