Two years ago, on January 8, 2023, Brazil witnessed one of the most striking episodes in the country’s recent history: the acts of invasion and depredation of the headquarters of the Three Powers, in Brasília. Outraged by the defeat at the polls, supporters of former President of the Republic Jair Bolsonaro called for the cancellation of the elections, military intervention, the return of AI-5 and the impeachment of the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes. But one question is still unanswered: when exactly did the coup movement that culminated in the acts of January 8 begin?
The program Reporting Paths this Monday (6), at 11pm, at TV Brasilinterviews journalists, writers, senators, psychologists, as well as a STF minister and the General Director of the Federal Police, to outline the chronology of the coup attempt. Everyone agrees in the opinion that the coup began to take shape long before the final period of Bolsonaro’s government.
Recently, a report from the Federal Police, the result of an extensive investigation, pointed out the existence of a plan, entitled Punhal Verde Amarelo, which aimed to assassination of President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva; vice Geraldo Alckmin; and the STF minister, Alexandre de Moraes.
“I believe that for the first time in history an investigation delved so deeply into this topic and unfortunately allowed us to show how far we have come and how close we were in fact to a coup d’état”, says Andrei Rodrigues, General Director of the Federal Police .
“This movement is long before Bolsonaro himself. It was already due to dissatisfaction since Lava Jato and the great movement after 2013. We had Dilma’s impeachment, Lula’s arrest. So there is a big political cauldron in part of society that had thrown the left into what was imagined to be a political corner. And Bolsonaro knew how to manipulate these feelings very well in the 2018 election, raising the possibility of electoral fraud and the agenda. of the printed vote”, explains journalist and writer Leandro Demori.
Journalist Juliana Dal Piva argues that radicalism developed over time and intensified during Bolsonaro’s presidency. “Especially in the last few months, after the election, when he no longer recognizes President Lula’s victory and disappears from the government’s last ceremonies. Now we know that they were planning in detail, including printinga coup”, states Dal Piva, in relation to the facts presented in the Federal Police investigation, which revealed the construction of the attempted coup d’état.
The PF operation, entitled Contragolpe, reveals that the plan was created in November 2022, with teams made up of Special Forces (FE) military personnel, the so-called black kids, who monitored daily life and itineraries of the minister and the president.
“What did we do to allow this to happen? What should we do to prevent this? I think that the politicization of the Armed Forces and the Police is very bad for the system and in some way is the cause of this phenomenon that occurred” , says Gilmar Mendes, minister of the STF, in relation to the participation of military personnel in the coup attempt.
The PF investigation brought to light the involvement of several generals, both in the Punhal Verde and Amarelo plan, and in the incitement of demonstrations and camps, inflaming the Bolsonarists’ clamor for military intervention.
An audio, revealed by the investigation, shows retired general Mário Fernandes talking to the then minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, Luiz Eduardo Ramos. He says: “we can’t take this shit any longer. And another thing, even if it’s to publicize and inflame the masses. So that they can stay on the streets. Maybe that’s what the High Command, the Defense, wants: the popular outcry, as it was in 64”.
However, several interviewees on the program agree that, despite support for the coup attempt by some military personnel, the Armed Forces were fundamental to maintaining democracy. “Like any institution made by people, there were people for and against. And the High Command, the investigations are showing, had already created a barrier to any attempt to turn the tables or coup d’état”, says Felipe Recondo, journalist and writer.
