A bombshell federal police report alleges top military brass backed a plot to seize power after Jair Bolsonaro lost his re-election bid in 2022, reports the Guardian.
The report, published Tuesday, details a three-year conspiracy that involved using social media to disseminate false information about election fraud, which the coup plotters hoped to leverage as justification for their power grab.
Investigators says this was meant to culminate on 15 December, with then President Bolsonaro signing a decree that would allow two close allies – General Walter Braga Netto, the former defence minister, and General Augusto Heleno, the former minister of institutional security – to be placed in charge of a “crisis management” cabinet the following day.
[See more: The social media platform X has been banned in Brazil]
The “unequivocal stance” taken against the plot by the majority of the army high command is credited with preventing the coup. It also likely saved the lives of current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, all of whom were targeted for assassination by the plotters.
Bolsonaro was one of 37 people formally accused last week of being involved in the criminal conspiracy to overthrow Brazilian democracy.
While the former president vehemently denies any involvement, calling accusations against him “madness”, the investigative report says the gathered evidence “shows unequivocally” that Bolsonaro “planned, took action and had direct and effective control of the executory acts carried out by the criminal organization that sought to execute a military coup and dismantle the rule of law.”
