Brazil: Congress approves report accusing Bolsonaro and 60 other people of plotting a coup d’état

The Brazilian Congress committee that investigated the attack on January 8 approved, by a majority, this Wednesday its final report in which it accuses the former president JairBolsonaro to be the “intellectual mentor”of a coup plot to overthrow the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The report, the result of five months of work, also proposes to prosecute another 60 people, including five former ministers of the Bolsonaro Government (2019-2022), former commanders of the Navy and Army, around twenty military personnel and a federal deputy, appointed also a blow.

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The document, supported by 20 votes against, 11 against and 1 abstention, will now be sent to the Public Ministry, which is already investigating the riot through criminal means and will now decide whether to continue the commission’s investigations and present charges to the courts.

The rapporteur of the Joint Parliamentary Committee investigating the January 8 coup attempt, Brazilian senator Eliziane Gama, at the National Congress, in Brasília, on October 18, 2023. (Photo by EVARISTO SA / AFP) (EVARISTO SA/ )

The commission was created to clarify the violent episode of January 8, when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed the Bolsonaro headquarters. Presidencyhe Parliament and the Supreme Courtin Brasiliato encourage a military coup against Lula, who had taken office a week earlier.

These events are already the subject of several investigations at the Supreme Court that attempt to clarify whether the far-right leader encouraged the attempt and whether he participated in the anti-democratic conspiracy.

For the assault on Brasília, the Supreme Court has already sentenced a dozen people among the almost 1,400 defendants. Bolsonaro, for now, only appears to be under investigation.

Bolsonaro’s “direct responsibility”

The commission’s report, prepared by Senator Eliziane Gamaargues, however, that the assault on Brasília was the culmination of an attempted coup orchestrated months earlier and which had the retired Army captain as its centerpiece.

To justify his thesis, he reconstructed, in more than 1,100 pages and supported by the testimony of witnesses who appeared at the commission, the tense months leading up to January 8th.

The document reports the roadblocks carried out by truck drivers, the camps in front of the Army barracks to demand military intervention, the frustrated attacks in Brasília and supposed discussions within the Government to prevent Lula from taking office, materialized in a draft of “coup decree” found by the Police.

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Everything led her to conclude that the January robbery was just the corollary of a coup conspiracy that was beginning to take shape.before“that Lula won the October 2022 elections and that he gained strength”from now on”.

In this context, the approved report accuses Bolsonaro of having “direct responsibility” and being the “intellectual and moral mentor” of the coup attempt. For this reason, he asks that he be charged with the crimes of illicit association, political violence, violent abolition of the rule of law and coup d’état.

Gama highlighted this Wednesday “the historical importance” of the text because it shows “tightly” O “to try”who had to abolish the rule of law.

In her speech, the senator also asked the president of the National Congress, Rodrigo Pachecopolice protection for her and her family against the avalanche of “threats” which he has received since leading the commission’s work.

While the parliamentarians debated, Bolsonaro appeared before the Police again to respond to one of the developments of the police investigation into the coup plot that investigates the exchange of messages with allied businessmen.

The former president distanced himself from the suspicions raised and insisted to journalists that it was just “responsible for what you signed”.

The opposition heats up the vote

This Wednesday’s session lasted seven hours and was marked by strong exchanges of statements between the commission’s official majority and Bolsonaro’s opposition, who even described his political opponents as “scoundrels”.

Since the beginning of the commission, Bolsonarism has also sought to hold the Lula Government responsible for “omissions”in the area of ​​security that“facilitated”the action of the vandals January 8.

SEE TOO: Bolsonaro denies violating Brazil’s Constitution after being accused of planning a coup with the military

When they didn’t, they crossed out the report as “extremely biased“, in “huge hoax”and being an instrument to promote only one“medieval chase”, as cited by deputies Rodrigo Valadares It is Marcel van Hattem.

The ruling party, made up of left and center forces, denounced “the permanent erosion of democratic values”during the Bolsonaro Government, as highlighted by deputy Alencar Meninoof Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL).

Your colleague Fernanda Melchiona He also condemned the “unacceptable machismo” by some far-right parliamentarians against the women on the commission and highlighted that the accusations against Bolsonaro are “a very important step in the search for justice”.

Source: Elcomercio