Brazilian police accuse Jair Bolsonaro and military officers in his inner circle of plotting a coup

For the second time in two weeks, Brazil’s Federal Police knocked on the door of Jair Bolsonaro’s summer home. At the end of January, they asked for his son Carlos; this Thursday, the agents were after the former president (2019-2022) himself for his alleged role in the failed coup attempt following his electoral defeat in 2022. The far-right politician, three retired generals who served as ministers in his government and several advisors from his inner circle are the targets of a police investigation that includes some 30 searches and four arrest warrants for his advisors. The officers showed up at the Bolsonaro’s home in Angra dos Reis, about 100 miles from Rio de Janeiro, with an order that forces the former president to surrender his passport and prohibits him from leaving the country or contacting the other people under investigation. His spokesman says that Bolsonaro will comply with the decision and hand over the travel document.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading the investigations into the coup attempt, signed the indictment. It alleges that Bolsonaro in November 2022 — that is, one month after the elections — received a draft decree prepared by his aides to overturn electoral results and issue arrest warrants for Moraes, fellow Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes and Senate leader Rodrigo Pacheco, according to the police investigation, based on wiretaps and the confession of the former president’s private secretary, Reuters reported.

Still president at the time, Bolsonaro then asked for some changes to the text, which were made, but the decree retained the request for new elections and the arrest of Moraes, whom Bolsonaro and his supporters consider their bête noire. Then, according to the police account, “Bolsonaro called a meeting with the commanders of the Armed Forces to present them with the decree and pressure them to join the coup d’état.”

The long arm of the law had been getting closer to Bolsonaro Sr. since he lost his immunity after leaving office, but the former president has never before been approached by investigators in the most serious case against him, his attempt to abolish the rule of law. It is also significant that the most wanted in this case include three generals in the reserves: Walter Braga Netto, who was Minister of Defense and vice-presidential candidate in the last election; his successor in the ministry Paulo Nogueira Batista; and Augusto Heleno, who headed the critical Ministry of Institutional Security. Other noteworthy people being pursued by the police are former Navy chief Almir Garnier and Waldemar Costa Neto, the president of the Liberal Party, to which Bolsonaro Sr. belongs.

Bolsonaro considers himself a victim of political persecution: “I left the government more than a year ago and I continue to suffer relentless persecution. Let them forget me, they already have someone else governing the country,” he told Folha de S. Paulo.

The ongoing operation, dubbed Tempus Veritatis (Latin for “moment of truth”), was ordered by the Supreme Court and is part of the investigations into the coup attempted by thousands of Bolsonaro supporters on January 8, 2023, a week after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumed the office of the president after winning the elections.

The police are accusing those under investigation of “belonging to a criminal organization that attempted to perpetrate a coup d’état” to keep Bolsonaro in power and thus obtain political advantages. Investigators allege that the perpetrators organized into cells to spread allegations of fraud in the 2022 elections and legitimize a military intervention. For two months, thousands of people camped out in front of military barracks all over the country demanding a coup against Lula. Only after the coup attempt were the camps dismantled. One of the people arrested is Filipe Martins, a military officer who was the extreme right-wing president’s international advisor.

President Lula da Silva spoke about the day’s news early on in the police operation. “I believe that [the coup attempt] would not have happened without him [Bolsonaro],” he said during an interview with a radio station, as cited by Efe. The leftist observed that after his far-right rival’s defeat, Bolsonaro “stayed at home crying and went to the United States. He must have participated in the planning of that coup attempt. Let’s see what the investigations say.”

The legal cases against Jair Bolsonaro are related to a variety of issues, from the attempted coup d’état to trying to keep some jewelry given to him by the Saudi royal family when he was president of Brazil to (most recently) disturbing a humpback whale while jet skiing. Since the Supreme Court’s announcement shortly after the failed coup that it was investigating Bolsonaro for inciting the attack on the headquarters of the three branches of government, the case against him has not developed much, but several members of his entourage have been ensnared. In any case, the former president was disqualified from running in the elections until 2028. At the same time, the walls are closing in around Bolsonaro little by little.

First, the police arrested and imprisoned a police commissioner who had been Minister of Justice. Next, they arrested his private secretary, a military officer who constantly accompanied him and carried his cell phone. Then, on January 29, officers arrived at the Bolsonaro’s summer home in search of Carlos Bolsonaro, a councilman in Rio de Janeiro, who is being investigated for illegally spying on thousands of his father’s opponents. Now, the police and judges have the leader of the Brazilian right and some of the retired generals and advisors who worked with him in his administration in their sights. Although he is disqualified from running for office, Bolsonaro has not thrown in the towel; he is preparing for next October’s municipal elections, which will help assess the current balance of power between Bolsonaro loyalists and supporters of Lula’s Workers’ Party.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition