In the week after the Sunday when 3,000 supporters of former President Bolsonaro smashed the interiors of the presidential palace, parliament and the Supreme Court, the investigation into those responsible is gaining momentum. Two men lead that search: from the judiciary high judge Alexandre de Moraes (54), from the government top official of Justice Ricardo Cappelli (50). They both wrote and circled one name in their notebooks: Anderson Torres.
President Lula da Silva ordered a “federal intervention” in the capital Brasilia on Sunday afternoon. Although the national government resides there, the city is part of the so-called ‘Federal District’ with its own administration headed by an elected governor. The local security apparatus of governor Ibaneis Rocha (51) had failed miserably, so the national government intervened. Lula appointed Cappelli, the second man in the Ministry of Justice, as an ‘interventor’, the one who must bring order to the heart of Brazilian power.
On Tuesday, Cappelli opened a first booklet. There had been ‘sabotage’ within the local security services, he told CNN Brasil. On January 1, the Federal District could still guarantee the safety of Lula’s ceremonial inauguration, he stressed. “An exemplary operation.” What has changed since then? “On January 2, Anderson Torres, ex-minister of Bolsonaro, took office as head of security of the Federal District, he exchanged full leadership and fled Brazil.”
Torres, 47, was Minister of Justice in the government of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro from April 2021 to the end of 2022. On January 2, he started his new job in Brasilia as chief of security in Governor Rocha’s administration. The latter has been a director of the capital since 2019. He was re-elected last October, partly because President Bolsonaro supported his candidacy. Bolsonaro was popular in the Federal District, winning 59 percent of the vote as a presidential candidate in October.
“If that’s not sabotage”
On Saturday, the day before the Bolsonarista invasion, Torres took a plane to the United States, not to visit his political ally Bolsonaro in Florida, he says, but to go on vacation with his family. In the CNN interview, Capelli comes to the same conclusion several times: it was not the individual officers of the military and civilian police that hardly intervened on Sunday, no, the leadership was missing. Torres left behind a decapitated security device and left. “If that isn’t sabotage, I don’t know what is.”
The temporary sheriff Cappelli is not a neutral investigator, he acts on behalf of the government of the left-wing president Lula. So he did not miss an opportunity to refer to Torres on television as “ex-minister of Bolsonaro”. It only took him two days to find the big crook. It also fitted perfectly into the picture that Torres, just like that (in the eyes of the Lula camp) even bigger crook Bolsonaro, had fled to the United States.
Nevertheless, Cappelli is supported by Judge Alexandre de Moraes, the most prominent member of the 11-member Supreme Court. On Tuesday, he ordered the arrest of Torres and Fábio Augusto Vieira, head of Brasilia’s military police. The invasion could only take place, says Moraes, “with the consent, and even active participation, of authorities responsible for public safety”. After all, the plan for the demonstration was already known in advance, the judge writes in his arrest warrant.
Burden of proof
The burden of proof against the security chief and the police chief is great, says Moraes. Under the watchful eye of Torres and Vieira, more than a hundred buses with Bolsonaro supporters were able to arrive in the capital on Sunday. In the first week of January, the two men had left the bolsonarista camp (‘forgiving the terrorists’) in front of the army barracks in Brasília undisturbed, while Moraes had already ordered its dismantling. In addition, there was not enough police around the government buildings on 8 January.
“Absolutely NOTHING justifies the existence of encampments full of terrorists, tolerated by military and civil authorities,” writes Moraes. “Absolutely NOTHING justifies the negligence and contempt (of the invasion, ed.) of the Security Secretary of the Federal District and the Commander of the Military Police.”
Torres, who was fired by Governor Rocha on Sunday, has escaped prison for the time being thanks to his stay in the United States. Although he announced on Tuesday that he would soon return to Brazil to defend himself in court. When he lands on Brazilian soil, he will be handcuffed immediately. He called the allegations “absurd.”
It is quite possible that Governor Rocha will also have to answer to the court in the future. He was suspended for 90 days by Judge Moraes. Lula’s security envoy Cappelli had immediately fired police chief Vieira upon his arrival in Brasília. The ex-commander was arrested on Tuesday.
Eight hundred files
Meanwhile, the investigation continues into the men and women who actually destroyed works of art in the parliament building with knives, threw chairs through windows, sprayed “Fuck you, bastard” on facades and bared their bottoms. Judge Moraes has a huge pile of files on his desk. About 1,500 participants in the invasion were arrested, of whom about 600 have since been released. The judge has now started defining charges against 800 people.
Behind one name is another big question mark: Jair Messias Bolsonaro. He had incited his followers (‘fascists, Nazis’) to this violence with his words and insinuations, President Lula said on Sunday. Bolsonaro has been staying in a holiday home in Orlando, Florida, since December 30. On Monday, he was hospitalized for stomach problems related to the stabbing incident during his 2018 campaign when he survived an attack. He was released from hospital on Tuesday.
Several US Democratic lawmakers have already asked for his extradition to Brazil. The administration of President Biden is still silent for the time being, although Biden did speak to Lula by telephone. Bolsonaro himself told CNN on Tuesday that he had initially wanted to stay in the US until the end of January, but plans to return sooner. “I was planning to spend some time here with family, but I haven’t really had a quiet day.”
The question is what will happen when Bolsonaro – as an ordinary citizen – lands in Brazil. Judge Moraes already had the politician in his sights when he was still president, among other things for spreading fake news and possible corruption. It remains to be seen whether the Brazilian constitutional state will ultimately also hold the ex-president (jointly) responsible for the Bolsonarista violence in the capital.