SAO PAULO (AP) — 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 Jan. 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, authorized the release of the documents.
Is anyone surprised by this actually?
Bolsonaro supporters might be if they had believed it. You know how it is with cult members and their Dear Leader…
“If those kids could read, they’d be very upset.”
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I am surprised by how closely it resembles Trump’s plan, right down to the insurrection date being only 2 days after Trump’s failed attempt.
You shouldn’t considering Bolsonaro from the start has copied literally every single action from Trump’s playbook, and it’s not even a secret since his mentor, Olavo de Carvalho, was a batshit crazy fascist based in the US and taking notes on all the abhorrent things Republicans were doing the past two decades.
Oh and not to mention the CIA and FBI were in cahoots with his government no less, because of course they were.
I am more surprised the Army and the Air Force noped out of that one. Not so much about the Navy’ s response though…
Why?
I was under the impression that Bolsorano had more support from the armed forces. I also always thought about Brazilian armed forces to lean more towards conservatism. But then again, I’m not Brazilian, so I don’t have the full context.
I was under the impression that Bolsorano had more support from the armed forces.
And so was he
Like most armies, they are conservative. But they are also generally legalist. They are loyal to the constitution, as a rule. The Navy commander is a fluke.
It’s pretty hard to explain in simple terms their thinking, as it’s more nuanced than the history of military dictatorships in the country suggest. But I would have been very surprised if they had agreed to the proposal and actually went for a coup.
laughs nervously in American
This is very interesting, at least for me as a Latin American but not from Brazil. I wonder whether the Army and Air Force want to distance themselves from politics in general, or if they have an issue with Bolsorano (or maybe the Navy)?
They were in power until 86ish, so the old fucks that were part the government then are probably still around salivating for another chance.
That’s what I would have thought.
Brazil was a military dictatorship for a long time. The people remember. The military tried to stay out of it.
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Interesting. Maybe they just don’t want to be involved in another dictatorship just yet?
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Despots seem to be following election advice from Putin.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
SAO PAULO (AP) — 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 Jan. 8, 2023 riots that trashed government buildings in the capital Brasilia one week after Lula’s inauguration.
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.”
Baptista Jr. also told the federal police that Fleet Admiral Almir Garnier, the former commander of Brazil’s Navy, “said he would put his troops at Jair Bolsonaro’s disposal,” according to the document.
“It’s one of the first big signs that Bolsonaro is going to stand alone and lose much of the military support he had,” said Sérgio Praça, a political scientist from the Rio de Janeiro-based Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university.
The original article contains 1,127 words, the summary contains 274 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
