Military leaders told police Bolsonaro plotted to remain in power despite election defeat

TWO TOP Brazilian military leaders declared to police that former President Jair Bolsonaro presented them a plan for him to remain in power after the 2022 election he lost, but both refused and warned him they would arrest him if he tried it, according to judicial documents released Friday.

The testimonies of Bolsonaro’s former Army and Air Force commanders to police, and released by the Supreme Court, include the first direct mentions of the right-wing leader as actively participating in a conspiracy to ignore the results of the October 2022 election won by his rival, current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The statements by military commanders during Bolsonaro’s term add to his legal woes as prosecutors seek to find links between the far-right leader and the January 8, 2023 riots that trashed government buildings in the capital Brasilia one week after Lula’s inauguration.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a frequent target of Bolsonaro and the chairman of the investigation, authorised the release of the documents.

A federal police report said former army commander Marco Antônio Freire Gomes testified that he and other top military leaders attended several last-minute and unscheduled meetings at the presidential palace after the second round of the elections “in which then-President Jair Bolsonaro offered possibilities of using legal tools ... regarding the electoral process.”

Gen Freire Gomes told federal police that in one of the gatherings Bolsonaro told the three commanders of his military and his then-Defence Secretary Paulo Sergio Nogueira he wanted to create a commission to “investigate the confirmation and the legality of the electoral process.” He added other tools could be used, such as issuing a decree to declare a state of siege.

Freire Gomes said he rejected the idea from the start and told Bolsonaro that such a move“could end in the legal responsibility of the then-president,” according to the federal police document.

The Brazilian general also declared to police he “always made it clear to the then-president that, under the conditions at the time, there was no possibility of reversing the result of the elections from a military standpoint.”

Former Air Force commander Brig. Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior also told federal police he rejected Bolsonaro’s electoral moves. He added that he believes that Gen Freire Gomes’ rebuke was key to stopping Bolsonaro from seeking to reverse the elections result.

“If the commander (Freire Gomes) had agreed, possibly, a coup d’etat attempt would have taken place,” the federal police document quotes Baptista Jr as saying.