In a shocking development, but perhaps coming as no surprise to some (who have long warned "Brazil's Donald Trump" would be target of an avalanche of further political persecution from the left once out of office) Brazil's federal police on Thursday announced a formal call for the the indictment of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro over a 2022 "coup" plot.
Supposedly this involved an organized criminal network which Bolsonaro directed to prevent current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office. The police allege Bolsonaro and 36 other officials and individuals plotted the "violent overthrow of the democratic state."
"Federal police concluded on Thursday the investigation into the existence of a criminal organization that acted in a coordinated way in 2022 in an attempt to maintain the then-president in power," the statement said.
"The final report has been sent to the Supreme Court with the request that 37 individuals [including the ex-president] be indicted for the crimes of the violent overthrow of the democratic state, coup d'etat and criminal organization."
An initial social media statement from Bolsonaro responded simply, "The fight begins at the Attorney General's office." It's as yet unclear whether the attorney general will take up the case, which could bring at least 12 years in prison if the ex-president is convicted.
Bolsonaro has also said he's the victim of a state-backed "persecution" and that he's innocent of all allegations. Police allege the criminal conspiracy occurred in the last several months of Bolsonaro's 2019-2022 presidency.
Current reports have left open whether the plotting had anything to do with the later "insurrection" which rocked central government buildings Brasilia on January 8, 2023 - involving angry pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators breaking into the Congress building, the Supreme Court, and also storming the presidential palace. American and some international commentators had at the time characterized it as Bolsonaro's own "J6 riot".
Bolsonaro is already facing other more minor investigations and charges, including allegedly falsifying his Covid-19 vaccination record. This new allegation by the federal police is the most serious one yet.
The NY Times details that "The charges are the culmination of a sweeping two-year investigation in which police raided homes and offices, arrested senior aides to Mr. Bolsonaro and secured confessions and plea deals with people involved in the plot."
"The announcement comes two days after four members of an elite military unit, including a former top aide to Mr. Bolsonaro, were arrested and accused of planning to assassinate Mr. Lula shortly before he took office in January 2023," the report indicates further.
. @BRASILWIRE reports that another of the arrested is Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo, a former instructor at The School of the Americas — the infamous US army school in Georgia that trains Latin Americans how to torture people and carry out coups. pic.twitter.com/eOX3oXyHaf
— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) November 20, 2024
So ultimately, the police are claiming a direct assassination plot targeting Lula. Already Bolsonaro has been barred from running for office for eight years, after in June 2023 Brazil's highest electoral court says that he cannot run for or hold any public office until 2030. This means he'll have to sit out the 2026 election regardless of if these coup allegations stick.
