Brazil's Attorney General files suit against Bolsonaro for leading coup attempt against Lula

Brazil's attorney general accuses Bolsonaro of leading coup attempt against Lula
The far-right former president, who according to the prosecution conspired to reverse his electoral defeat, faces crimes totaling 43 years in prison
The Brazilian attorney general, Paulo Gonet, has accused Jair Messias Bolsonaro, who was president between 2019 and 2022, on Tuesday night of leading the attempt to perpetrate a coup d'état to reverse his defeat at the polls against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, according to the Prosecutor's Office in an official note. Last November, the police requested the indictment of the far-right former president. The attorney general now maintains that Bolsonaro led "a criminal organization based on an authoritarian project of power."

In addition to the former president, 33 people have been charged, including several of his ministers and a former head of the Navy. One of the accused, retired military officer Walter Braga Netto, who was a candidate for vice president, is in prison for obstructing investigations. Never before has a Brazilian four-star general been imprisoned.

The former president is one step away from sitting in the dock. The attorney general has sent his complaint to the Supreme Court, which must now convene one of its two chambers to decide whether to accept the complaint and open a trial against Bolsonaro and the rest of the accused. Bolsonaro is accused of the crimes of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d'état and membership of a criminal organization, among other crimes, the sum of which amounts to 43 years in prison.

Attorney General Gonet describes his 272-page complaint in the preamble: “Here we denounce the actions of a President of the Republic who, with other civilian and military figures, forms a criminal organization structured to prevent the popular will expressed in the 2022 elections from being fulfilled, implying his continuity in power without the endorsement of universal suffrage.”

The former military man was defeated in the elections in November 2022 by Lula in the closest electoral result in the history of Brazil, less than two points. Months before the vote, he launched a campaign to sow doubts about the security of the ballot boxes and pave the way for future claims, following the script of his main idol, President Donald Trump.

Hours before the complaint was filed, Bolsonaro went to the Senate, where he told the press: “I am waiting for it [the complaint] to arrive. I hope to have access to the files now. Have you seen the minutes of the coup by chance? You haven't seen it, I haven't either." Bolsonaro, who has always denied the accusations and maintains that he is the victim of a witch hunt, lost parliamentary immunity when he left the presidency because he does not hold any elected office.

Through his lawyers, Bolsonaro has declared: "The president has never supported any movement that seeks to deconstruct the democratic rule of law or the institutions that support it." The lawyers describe the complaint, in their note, as inept, fanciful and incoherent. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro has also criticized the complaint on social media. He maintains that there is no evidence against his father and that the attorney general has bowed to the interests of Judge Alexandre de Moraes, the man most hated by Bolsonarism, and of Lula.

The current president, who spent more than a year in jail for a corruption case that was later annulled, has repeatedly promised that those responsible for the coup attempt would be punished, but at the same time has defended the right of the accused to a fair trial. The president of the Workers' Party, Gleisi Hoffmann, has welcomed the accusation against the far-right leader. "Let them never again try to commit fraud in elections, depose legitimate governments and organize murders." The police maintain that the conspirators considered killing Lula.

The former president remains the leader of the Brazilian right, despite the fact that he is disqualified from running for election until 2030. This veto is related to a separate case of the coup in which he was convicted of abuse of power by taking advantage of his position to question, months before the presidential elections, the security of the electronic ballot boxes before the diplomatic corps accredited to Brasilia.

Bolsonaro refused to recognize the victory of the leftist Lula and his supporters camped outside barracks across the country demanding military intervention. Bolsonaro publicly encouraged that protest against alleged fraud and they were there for the two months of the transition.

The protest in Brasilia continued with hundreds of Bolsonaristas camping out even after Lula's inauguration on January 1, 2023. A week later, while Bolsonaro was in State of 

United, thousands of his followers violently took over the heart of Brazilian democracy. They stormed the headquarters of the Presidency, the Supreme Court and Congress.

The key testimony to incriminate Bolsonaro has been that of his personal secretary, the military man Mauro Cid. He acted on multiple occasions as a liaison with other military men, retired generals, active generals, members of the elite troops..., with whom Bolsonaro supposedly plotted the coup.

Among the preparations for the coup, two meetings stand out, according to the investigation. The first, in which Bolsonaro met with several of his ministers and encouraged them to heat up the atmosphere by spreading falsehoods about the security of the electronic ballot boxes that Brazil has used for more than a quarter of a century.

The second was held after the elections, when Lula was already president-elect. The outgoing president summoned the top brass of the Armed Forces to the presidential palace. He proposed that they approve a decree granting exceptional powers to the military to prevent Lula from taking office. The heads of the Army and Air Force refused to endorse the coup, while his Navy colleague supported the proposal and offered his sailors. The police maintain that only the refusal of the two generals prevented the coup from taking place.