On October 30, 2022, in a high turnout (79.4%) runoff between fascist incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, and left-leaning former president Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro was ousted by about a point— 60,345,999 (50.9%) to 58,206,354 (49.1%). Bolsonaro and his allies then attempted to assassinate Lula, VP candidate Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
Marina Dias and Terrence McCoy reported yesterday that the federal police, who have been investigating the attempted coup for two years have recommended that Bolsonaro and his accomplices be formally charged for “the plot to subvert the will of voters, assassinate political rivals and stay in power by military edict following his 2022 electoral defeat.”
Among Bolsonaro’s accomplices were former defense ministers Gen Walter Braga Netto and Gen Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira; the former minister of justice and public security Anderson Torres; former spy chief, the far-right congressman Alexandre Ramagem; the former minister of institutional security Gen Augusto Heleno; former navy commander Adm Almir Garnier Santos; the president of Bolsonaro’s political party, Valdemar Costa Neto; and Filipe Martins, one of Bolsonaro’s top foreign policy advisers; rightwing blogger grandson of Gen João Baptista Figueiredo, one of the military rulers who ran the country during its 1964-85 dictatorship; and one non-Brazilian: Fernando Cerimedo, an Argentine digital marketing guru who was in charge of communications for Argentina’s far right president, Javier Milei, another Trump ally and Bolsonaro friend.
In a public announcement, police said they discovered a compartmentalized effort inside the Bolsonaro government to block Lula’s inauguration. One team, police said, was charged with making unfounded allegations to undermine public confidence in the electoral system. Another was responsible for galvanizing support among the military to carry out the coup. A third was tasked to implement what police described as “coercive measures.”
… The explosive allegations, the first to directly link Bolsonaro to a coup attempt, sent political shock waves across Latin America’s largest democracy, which in recent days has been forced to confront how close it came to witnessing a coup and returning to military dictatorship.
Earlier this week, Brazilian police arrested five members of the country’s security forces, alleging that they had initiated a plan to assassinate Lula after his electoral victory. One of the men arrested, Mario Fernandes, who was Bolsonaro’s deputy chief of staff, allegedly printed out the coup plan inside the presidential palace after meeting with Bolsonaro in December 2022.
The government official said police have evidence that shows messages between Bolsonaro aides in which they rejoice. “They were happy because Bolsonaro ‘accepted our advice.’”
Police say the plan, labeled “Green and Yellow Dagger,” called for the installation of a “Crisis Management Cabinet” to manage the fallout following the assassinations of Lula, his vice president and also Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
Bolsonaro, in a statement published on Twitter, rebutted the allegations and said they were politically motived. He accused Moraes, a frequent political antagonist who ordered the police investigation into suspicions of a coup plot in the Bolsonaro government, of manipulating the investigation.
“He did everything against the law,” Bolsonaro said. “It’s now going to [federal prosecutors], and that is where the fight will begin. I can’t expect anything from this team that has used creative thinking to accuse me.”
The police official said authorities were confident they had enough evidence to convict Bolsonaro.
“We have all of the sufficient elements we need for him to be convicted,” the official said. “He should be tried and arrested by the end of 2025.”
Ana Ionova, reporting for the NY Times, noted that “The police have already recommended criminal charges against Bolsonaro in two separate cases: an effort to falsify his Covid-19 vaccination records and a plot to embezzle jewelry that he received as gifts from foreign leaders while in office. Federal prosecutors will now decide whether to pursue charges in any of these cases. If they do, it will be the first time Bolsonaro faces criminal charges… Although the police in Brazil can make recommendations about criminal prosecutions, they do not have the power to formally charge Bolsonaro. The country’s top federal prosecutor, Paulo Gonet, must now to decide whether to pursue charges against Bolsonaro and compel him to stand trial before the nation’s Supreme Court. More than a year before Brazil’s 2022 elections, Bolsonaro began loudly sowing baseless doubts about the security of the nation’s voting machines, warning that he could be defeated only if they were rigged in his opponent’s favor.”
Sound familiar? He also refused to concede and inspired his supporters to invade and vandalize Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices just days after Lula took office, “hoping to provoke a military intervention… In June Brazil’s electoral court barred Bolsonaro running for office until 2030, ruling that he had violated the law when he summoned diplomats to the presidential palace and made baseless claims that the nation’s voting systems were likely rigged against him.”
It seems democracy is stronger there than here. YES to commenter below, Garland did NOTHING abouc T’s incitement of the Capitol insurrection. Oh and has everyone forgotten about the Mueller report’s slam dunk case against T for obstruction of justice about Russian interference in 2016? Garland completely ignored it when he could’ve gone gung-ho after T for this right away?
They clearly need to bring Merrick Garland down and put him on the case. He'll make sure that justice is done in this case.