THE Army General Mário Fernandes, one of the defendants in the coup plot process, said on Thursday (24) that he visited as “citizen” the coup camp mounted in front of the Army Barracks in Brasilia after former President Jair Bolsonaro is defeated from the 2022 presidential elections. 
The military, who has been arrested since November last year, was interrogated, by video conferencing, by the Supreme Federal Court (STF), as one of the defendants of core 2 of the coup plot criminal action.
The group is accused by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) of planning actions to try to support Bolsonaro’s illegitimate permanence in power in 2022.
Mário Fernandes is appointed as a link between the scammers who were camped and the then Bolsonaro government.
At the hearing, the Military confirmed that he was sometimes in the Army HQ. He was heard by an auxiliary judge of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the case.
“Sometimes I went to the HQ, I was as a citizen, seeing that it was important for the Brazilian to present his social and political demands,” he said.
Fernandes also defended the protesters who were in the camp and said that part of them was not a scammer.
“Calling the people who had on January 8 as scammers, I can even accept. All of them? There were only a few. Those who were in front of the army quarters, they came in for several reasons, even for the celebration of gathering patriots, people dressed in green and yellow to talk about issues of the country,” he said.
“Green and yellow dagger”
During the Bolsonaro government, the General occupied the position of executive secretary of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic and was responsible, according to the investigations, for the preparation of the Word Archive entitled “Green and Yellow Dagal”with planning “focused on kidnapping or homicide” of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin.
In the testimony, the General claimed that the file was personal, but confirmed that it determined the document’s impression on a Planalto Palace printer.
However, according to the military, the document was intended for the Institutional Security Office (GSI), which was commanded by General Augusto Heleno, who is also a defendant. He denied that the file would be presented at a meeting with Bolsonaro.
“The determination was mine to my chief of staff, Reginaldo Vieira de Abreu, who issued six copies. These six copies were issued. Their goal was to introduce to the GSI, which, doctrinally, was responsible for assembling the crisis office,” he said.
“It does not mean the crisis that PGR thinks it is. It could be any other crisis. It was an advice in support, in this case, to General Heleno, who is a great friend, a great mentor. It had nothing to do with presentation to Bolsonaro,” he added.
The interrogation of the defendants is one of the last phases of criminal action.
THE It is expected that the trial that will decide for the conviction or acquittal those accused of core 2 will take place in the second half of this year.
PGR’s complaint about the coup plot was divided into four nuclei. Nucleus 1, formed by former President Jair Bolsonaro and seven other defendants, was questioned last month. This part of the process is in the final allegations, last phase, and must be tried in September.
