Brazil police confiscate passport of ex-president Bolsonaro for 'attempt to plan coup'

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Police in Brazil confiscated former President Jair Bolsonaro’s passport Thursday and accused him of attempting to overturn the country’s 2022 election results to continue in power after he lost to rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is leading the investigation, said Bolsonaro received a draft decree prepared by his aides to overturn the results of the presidential election and issue arrest warrants for Moraes and fellow Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes as well as Senate leader Rodrigo Pacheco in November 2022, one month after the polls.

Bolsonaro then called a meeting with the military commanders to pressure them to join the coup d’état, according to the police account.

Four people were arrested and 33 search warrants were executed Thursday as part of the investigation, Brazil's Federal Police said in a statement.

"On Thursday, the Federal Police launched Operation Tempus Veritatis to investigate the criminal organization that acted in an attempt to carry out a coup d'état and abolish the democratic rule of law, in order to obtain political advantage by keeping the then President of the Republic in power," the statement said.

The operation targeted some of Bolsonaro’s closest allies, including Walter Braga Netto, Bolsonaro’s former running mate; Augusto Heleno, former Secretary of Institutional Security; former Defense Minister Paulo Nogueira Batista and former Justice Minister Anderson Torres.

The right-wing former president has denied any wrongdoing and said he is a victim of political persecution.

“I left the government more than a year ago and I’m still suffering relentless persecution,” Bolsonaro told the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper on Thursday.

However, he faces various investigations stemming from his time in office, including one for trying to keep some jewelry given to him by the Saudi royal family and another into whether he forged his COVID-19 vaccination certification.

Lula told local media that “without Bolsonaro there would have been no coup attempt.”