Jair Bolsonaro, the retired soldier who presided over Brazil between 2019 and 2022, was questioned this Thursday by the federal police in Brasilia about the attempted coup of which he is accused with around twenty collaborators. The former president and 22 other suspects, including several reserve generals and other low-ranking military personnel, were summoned to appear simultaneously at police stations in several cities. Bolsonaro and other defendants exercised their right to remain silent. The former president’s lawyer said he “fears nothing because he did nothing” and added that he “never had any sympathy for any coup movement.”
The far right has summoned its supporters to a major event in São Paulo this Sunday to reject the accusations that it considers absolutely unfounded and part of a political-judicial persecution. An evangelical pastor will pay for the act.
Remaining silent is the strategy chosen by Bolsonaro’s defense in the face of the judge’s refusal to give him access to all the evidence that exists against him. The former president demanded to know in detail the confessions of Lieutenant Mauro Cid, who, when he was president, was his private secretary. Cid’s cell phone, filled with messages, audios and documents now included in the investigation, proved particularly valuable. Police also found on a computer at Lieutenant Cid’s home a draft coup decree that provided for the arrest of Supreme Court Justice Alexander de Moraes, who heads the main investigations against Bolsonarism.
The former president presented three requests to postpone the interrogation, but all were rejected by Judge Moraes, the same one who is investigating the violent attack by thousands of Bolsonaro supporters at the headquarters of the three powers in Brasilia. Dozens of material perpetrators of this violent and festive invasion have been sentenced to heavy sentences in recent months. But only now have the alleged instigators and masterminds become targets for police.
Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices are accused of trying to prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s return to power by writing a coup decree, putting pressure on the leadership of the armed forces and carrying out disinformation campaigns on social networks to erode the credibility of the system. voting and incentives for thousands of Bolsonaro supporters to remain camped outside barracks across the country during the transition of power, demanding military intervention against Lula.
As a precaution in this case, Bolsonaro is prohibited from traveling outside Brazil and police confiscated his passport. The Supreme Court and police are also investigating several generals, an admiral and other military and civilian personnel. Four of them have been in preventive detention for several weeks.
Sunday’s rally on Paulista Avenue, São Paulo’s main political scene, will be the first large gathering in which Bolsonaro has participated since his election defeat by Lula. Throughout this period, he has participated in small political events, although a few months ago judges disqualified him from running for office until 2030. Several allied governors have announced their presence at the he event, including Tarcisio de Freitas from São Paulo, one of the best placed to succeed Bolsonaro at the head of the Brazilian right if he were to be completely removed from the political front.
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