Brazil’s national police said that former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro “directly and actively participated” in plotting a coup to overturn the 2022 election along with his supporters, according to an official report made public on Tuesday.
Bolsonaro, who was president from 2019 to 2022, was also “fully aware” of an alleged plan by soldiers to kill Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated him in the election, as well as Lula’s vice president and a Supreme Court judge, said the report, which is now with Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“The evidence obtained during the investigation shows unequivocally that the then president of the Republic, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, planned, acted and had direct and effective control of the executory acts carried out by the criminal organization that aimed to carry out a coup d’état and abolish the democratic rule of law, a fact that was not consummated due to circumstances beyond his control,” the report says.
Last week, Brazil’s federal police said the former president had worked with allies in “a criminal organization” to try to remain in power after his election defeat to Lula.
On Monday, Bolsonaro rejected the accusation.
“I never discussed a coup with anyone,” Bolsonaro told journalists in Brasília.
“If someone were to come to discuss a coup with me, I would ask: ‘What about the day after? How would we look to the world?'”
Bolsonaro went on to say that what he did consider were “all possible moves…within the constitution.”
The Public Prosecutor’s Office must now decide whether to follow the recommendation of the federal police and press charges against Bolsonaro and 36 other suspects.
The police also accused top military officials of involvement in the plot.
In addition to Bolsonaro, the accused include former general and head of the cabinet for institutional security Augusto Heleno, former defence minister Braga Netto and former president of the secret service Alexandre Ramagem, the police said.
All are accused of crimes of violent abolition of the democratic constitutional state, a coup d’état and the formation of a criminal organization.
On January 8, 2023, supporters of former military man Bolsonaro, who refused to recognize Lula’s election victory, stormed the Congress, the government headquarters and the Supreme Court in Brasília, causing significant damage.
