Secretly planned coup?
The military is putting a heavy burden on Brazil’s ex-president Bolsonaro
March 15, 2024, 10:01 p.m
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Brazil’s ex-President Bolsonaro is under heavy pressure from the military. He is said to have planned a coup in 2022 to stay in power despite Lula da Silva’s election victory.
In the investigation into suspected coup plots following Jair Bolsonaro’s election defeat, several high-ranking military officials have heavily incriminated the former Brazilian president. The federal police accuse the former right-wing head of state and his allies of preparing a coup in order to stay in power after the election defeat in October 2022 against the current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro discussed the draft of a coup decree at a meeting with military representatives, the then army chief Freire Gomes said in his interrogation. The witness statements were made public by the Supreme Court on Friday. The draft therefore envisaged declaring a case of defense and having the legality of the elections checked.
Bolsonaro rejects all allegations
Gomes then told Bolsonaro that he would have to have him arrested if he made such an attempt, said then air force commander Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior in his interrogation. Former naval commander Almir Garnier, however, did not comment on the meetings. According to Bolsonaro’s aide Mauro Cid, he is said to have sympathized with the plans for a coup and offered troops for a possible coup.
In a speech in front of tens of thousands of supporters at the end of February, the ultra-right politician rejected the allegations against him. “What is a coup? Tanks in the streets, weapons, a conspiracy,” he said in the economic metropolis of São Paulo. “None of this happened in Brazil.” Bolsonaro once again accused the government of his successor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of politically “persecuting” him. Nobody should be banned from the political stage without a “just cause”. The former president was banned from all political office for eight years by the country’s highest electoral court in June last year due to unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud.
The right-wing politician was defeated by the left-wing politician Lula in the runoff election for the presidency in October 2022, but did not recognize his election victory. He repeatedly raised doubts about the Brazilian electoral system and spoke of electoral fraud, although without providing any concrete evidence. On January 8, 2023, supporters of the ex-military who did not want to recognize Lula’s election victory stormed the Congress, the seat of government and the Supreme Court in Brasília and caused severe destruction.