After being targeted by a police operation as part of an investigation into a “coup attempt”, former President Jair Bolsonaro was banned from leaving Brazilian territory on Thursday.
This large-scale operation – which also targeted former ministers, generals and close collaborators of Jair Bolsonaro – further tightens the judicial grip on the former far-right leader (2019-2022), surrounded by affairs since his electoral defeat against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in October 2022.
“Jair Bolsonaro’s passport has been handed over to the competent authorities,” one of his lawyers, Fabio Wajngarten, announced on X.
The passport of President @jairbolsonaro is confirmed by competent authorities, before 12:00, by BSB in accordance with the determination.
— Fabio Wajngarten (@fabiowoficial) February 8, 2024
The federal police announced in a press release that they had carried out 33 searches and executed four arrest warrants, as part of an investigation into "a criminal organization which took part in an attempted coup d'état (...) for obtain political advantages with the maintenance of the president at the time (Jair Bolsonaro) in power".
A week after Lula's inauguration, on January 8, 2023, thousands of Bolsonaristas ransacked the places of power in Brasilia, demanding military intervention to dislodge the left-wing president. Riots reminiscent of the assault on the Capitol in Washington by supporters of Donald Trump two years earlier.
"Forget me"
“I have not governed for more than a year and I continue to suffer relentless persecution,” Jair Bolsonaro told a journalist from the daily Folha de S. Paulo on Thursday. “Forget me, there is someone else who governs the country,” he added.
His successor responded to him from a distance: “The fact is that there was an attempted coup d’état (...) which could not have taken place without Bolsonaro,” Lula said on local radio Itatiaia , nevertheless calling for respect for the “presumption of innocence”.
Four people were arrested Thursday, according to the Brazilian press: Filipe Martins, former foreign policy advisor to Jair Bolsonaro, two soldiers, but also the leader of the former president's Liberal Party, Valdemar Costa Neto, arrested for illegal possession of 'a weapon.
In addition, four generals were targeted by the searches, including two former defense ministers in the Bolsonaro government. One of them, Walter Braga Netto, was his vice-presidential candidate in the 2022 election. The other, Paulo Sergio Nogueira, was commander in chief of the Army.
Another prominent personality targeted: the influential general Augusto Heleno, former minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet and considered one of Jair Bolsonaro's gray eminences.
“Proof that there was a putschist movement”
For political analyst André César, Thursday's police operation marks a "turning point", investigators having shown "evidence that there was a putschist movement".
The police found at the headquarters of the Liberal Party in Brasilia a document, published by the media, having the appearance of a speech announcing a state of siege. This text "does not correspond to the traditional and recognized expressions" of the ex-president, replied his lawyer Fabio Wajngarten, denying that he was the author.
In its investigation, the federal police evoke an attempt to “disseminate suspicions of fraud in the 2022 presidential election even before the vote is held, to legitimize military intervention”.
It also reports "the practice of acts to abolish the democratic rule of law through a coup d'état, with the support of the military."
Investigators cite in particular a plan to arrest Alexandre de Moraes, president of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), and to call new elections.
According to investigations, this plan was intended to be executed through a decree, the terms of which would have been presented by Jair Bolsonaro to high-ranking military personnel during a meeting on December 7, 2022. That is to say a week later his defeat against Lula and three weeks before the transfer of power. This decree ultimately never saw the light of day.
The black beast of the Bolsonaro clan, Alexandre de Moraes, also a judge at the Supreme Court, ordered the opening of numerous investigations against the ex-president.
It was under his leadership that the TSE sentenced Jair Bolsonaro to eight years of ineligibility in June – for disseminating false information on the electronic voting system.
Last week, one of Jair Bolsonaro's sons, Carlos, was targeted by another police operation, as part of an investigation into illegal espionage under his father's presidency.
With AFP
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