Brazilian police on Tuesday arrested five people, including a member of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet, suspected of being involved in an alleged plan to assassinate then-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva days before he takes office in 2022 .
Documents seized by police revealed that plans were made to shoot or poison Lula and his elected Vice President Geraldo Alcmin and to appoint two retired army generals, National Security Advisor Augusto Heleno and former Defense Minister Braga Netto, to lead the country. Was put in charge with the idea of. New elections.
Police said in a statement that the conspiracy involved an attempt to assassinate a Supreme Court judge with an explosive device or poison.
The army confirmed the arrests of retired Brigadier General Mario Fernandes, who served as a deputy minister in Bolsonaro’s cabinet, and Lieutenant Colonels Helio Ferreira Lima, Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo and Rafael Martins de Oliveira.
The army statement said the officers were in Rio de Janeiro but not involved in security operations for the summit of leaders of the G20 group of major economies being held in the city.
Most of those under investigation in the alleged 2022 coup plot are military personnel with special forces training, or close associates of Bolsonaro, a hard-right former army officer who won the presidency in 2018.
The arrests were the first time federal police have described a coup plot to kill Lula and Alcmin and prevent them from returning to power.
The police identified the key conspirator as Fernandes, from whom an outline of a conspiracy was found which was printed in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
“A detailed operational plan named ‘Green and Yellow Dagger’ was identified, to be executed on December 15, 2022, with the aim of assassinating the elected candidates for President and Vice President,” the police said in a statement.
Federal police issued five arrest warrants on Tuesday without naming those arrested, as well as three search and seizure warrants and another 15 precautionary measures.
These included preventing suspects from contacting others and preventing them from leaving the country.
“The investigation indicates that the criminal organization used a high level of techno-military knowledge to plan, coordinate and execute illegal actions in the months of November and December 2022,” the police statement said.
federal police investigation
Lula defeated Bolsonaro in presidential elections in October 2022, and the leftist leader took office on January 1, 2023. Bolsonaro had filled his government with military officers, many of them opponents of Lula.
Bolsonaro left Brazil days before Lula’s inauguration for Florida, never acknowledging his election defeat. He eventually returned to Brazil and is under investigation for his alleged role in encouraging riots in Brasília on January 8, 2023, when his supporters stormed the government building in the capital in hopes of creating chaos and prompting the military to take power. Buildings were raided and vandalized.
A source with direct knowledge of the investigation told Reuters that the federal police investigation will conclude that Bolsonaro planned a coup attempt after losing the election. The investigation is expected to be completed this month.
Bolsonaro has made no public comment on the coup plot allegations. Reuters was trying to reach representatives of the former president and Fernandes for comment.
Brazil’s military oversaw the federal operation against coup plotters, which was launched on Tuesday in Brasília and the states of Rio de Janeiro, Goiás and Amazonas.
According to sources Reuters spoke to, the plotters also planned to kill Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who led an investigation into Bolsonaro’s abuses of power and unproven attacks on Brazil’s voting system while he was president. and banned him from running for elected office. By 2030.
More than 2,000 people were arrested for taking part in the January 2023 uprising in Brasília, although most were later released. Others have been convicted by the Supreme Court of involvement in the coup attempt.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
