- Brazil’s federal police today launched an operation against some of Bolsonaro’s top advisers, sources said.
Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, was forced to hand over his passport as a police investigation into an attempted coup d’état was launched following his election defeat.
Brazil’s federal police today launched an operation against some of Bolsonaro’s top advisers, sources involved in the operation told Reuters, in an investigation into the coup attempt.
In a statement, the federal police did not name the targets of the operation, but said they are accused of participating in ‘a criminal organization that acted in an attempted coup d’état’ aimed at ‘keeping the then President of the Republic’. .
Targets of the search warrants include Gen. Walter Braga Netto, a former minister and former vice presidential candidate in Bolsonaro’s campaign, former Defense Minister Paulo Nogueira Batista and former Justice Minister Anderson Torres, the sources said.
Police visited Bolsonaro’s beach house and asked the former president to hand over his passport, said three sources, who requested anonymity to discuss an active operation.
Jair Bolsonaro. Brazil’s federal police today launched an operation against some of Bolsonaro’s top advisers, sources involved in the operation said.
A spokesman for the Bolsonaro family, Fabio Wajngarten, said on social media that the former president would comply and hand over his passport.
Bolsonaro’s former international affairs adviser, Felipe Martins, is one of four people targeted by arrest warrants, the sources said.
Reuters attempted to contact the targets of the police operation and their lawyers, but did not receive an immediate response.
Police said in their statement that the targets of Thursday’s operation formed a group in 2022 that spread allegations of election fraud “even before the election was held” to “legitimize a military intervention.”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in the 2022 election, said the coup attempt needed to be investigated to prevent the same thing from happening again.
“Without Bolsonaro there would have been no coup attempt,” Lula said in a radio interview.
A week after Lula took office in January 2023, Bolsonaro supporters who had gathered for days outside army headquarters invaded and vandalized government buildings in Brasilia, calling for a military takeover.