'Bolsonaro behind coup plan': Former Brazilian president implicated in foiled coup attempt

brasilia - A police report holds former Brazil president responsible for thwarted coup, accusing Bolsonaro of actively participating in the plot.

An advanced plan to prevent leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from becoming president ultimately failed because the then commanders of the army and air force, Generals Marco Antonio Freire Gomes and Carlos de Almeida Baptista, refused to join the coup plotters.

'Bolsonaro was aware of the coup plot and actively took part in it,' states this week's police investigation released by the Supreme Court, now in the hands of the Minister of Justice who will decide whether Bolsonaro and 36 other suspects will be prosecuted.

Bolsonaro, who ruled Brazil from January 2019 to January 2023, 'planned, acted, and controlled with the aim of carrying out a coup,' reads the conclusion in the 884-page final report of the two-year Federal Police investigation into the alleged coup.

The evidence includes witness statements, phone data, bank and tax records, information from searches, registered visits of conspirators to President Bolsonaro's working palace, route planner information of the suspects, and screenshots of chat messages where the suspects communicated about the intended coup.

The coup plotters began spreading rumors of possible election fraud even before the presidential elections of October 30, 2022. In the lead-up to the elections, Bolsonaro's ministers, on his orders, began to question the reliability of voting machines and the electoral system.

The men behind the coup attempt planned to poison Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, elected president on October 30, 2022, before his inauguration on January 1, 2023, so that Bolsonaro could take his place. Also targeted were Lula's vice president Geraldo Alckmin and the then president of the Electoral Court, Alexandre Moraes, now a Supreme Court judge. The gruesome plan was codenamed 'Operation Green and Yellow Dagger,' referencing the colors of the national flag.

The coup plan was exposed after the police found a draft version of the coup during a search at Augusto Heleno, Bolsonaro's Minister of Institutional Security, the ministry responsible for protecting the president. It included declaring a state of emergency by decree in case the 77-year-old Lula won the election, meaning political and judicial power would come under military control, and the election result would be invalidated. The coup plotters cited the 1964 coup as an example. Bolsonaro has often praised the military dictatorship that lasted until 1985.

The would-be assassins planned in a chat group named 'Copa 2022' on the messaging app Signal, using code names like Germany, Austria, Japan, and Ghana. Their targets, Lula, Alckmin, and Moraes, were nicknamed 'Jeca,' 'Joca,' and 'teacher.'

When Bolsonaro saw the coup concept on December 7, he made two personal changes and on the same day invited his three military commanders to Palácio de Alvorada, the residence of the Brazilian president. The Navy commander supported the coup, while the Army and Air Force commanders rejected it, preventing its execution.

Other prominent suspects include Bolsonaro's Defense and Justice Ministers, the head of the Brazilian intelligence service ABIN, the Army commander, a former Minister of Defense, and Bolsonaro's close adviser.

On January 8, 2023, a week after Lula took office, the conspirators attempted to overthrow the government by inciting thousands of Bolsonaro supporters to storm the Supreme Court, parliament, and the working palace of President Lula. The uprising was quickly quelled, leading to an investigation into the alleged coup.