Brazil’s Bolsonaro directly involved in 2022 coup attempt: Police report

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro planned and had "effective and direct" control over a plot to overturn the outcome of the October 2022 election he lost to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, according to a Federal Police report declassified on Tuesday.

The 884-page report​​ said "the evidence obtained by the investigation unequivocally demonstrates" Bolsonaro's involvement in these plans after Lula's victory at the polls.

Along with Bolsonaro, who served as president of Brazil between 2019 and 2022, 36 other people are accused, including two retired generals who were ministers in his government.

The evidence included a meeting Bolsonaro called in December 2022 with the three armed forces commanders who were asked to join a conspiracy to oust Lula. The investigations claim that the coup was not carried out because the plotters did not obtain the support of the then commanders of the Army and the Air Force, Generals Marco Antonio Freire Gomes and Carlos de Almeida Baptista. Both implicated the former president in the plot when they appeared as witnesses in the case.

The Navy commander, now retired Admiral Almir Garnier, said he backed the plan and offered his sailors for the coup.

The police revealed that as part of the plot, the coup plotters also planned to kill Lula.

Bolsonaro has denied having committed any crime.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized on Tuesday the lifting of the seal on the police findings. The report was sent to the Attorney General's Office by the Supreme Court, which will decide whether to formally charge Bolsonaro and the others involved in the alleged coup attempt.