Brazil’s federal police have arrested four special forces military personnel and one of their own agents on suspicion of planning the assassination of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on 15 December 2022 to prevent his inauguration after his victory over the then president, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro.
According to the police, the plot also included plans to assassinate the vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin, and the supreme court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, who at the time was already leading investigations into the so-called “hate cabinet,” as the group of Bolsonaro’s advisors who fueled mobs with fake news and attacks against his opponents became known.
Moraes, who is also leading the investigations into the attempted coup of 8 January last year, when Bolsonaro supporters ransacked government buildings to protest against his election defeat, was also the main target of a bomber who killed himself while attempting to attack Brazil’s supreme court last week.
One of the four special forces military personnel arrested is retired general Mario Fernandes, who served as an executive secretary in Bolsonaro’s administration, while two others were arrested in Rio de Janeiro, where the G20 summit is being held.
The latest revelations represent the most serious to have come to light so far during the investigation into the attempted coups orchestrated by Bolsonaro supporters after the 2022 election results.
Others include the rampage through Brasília during Lula’s certification on 12 December 2022, the discovery of an explosive device attached to a fuel truck near the capital’s airport on 24 December 2022, and the riots on 8 January last year.
According to the police, the five individuals arrested on Tuesday were part of a “criminal organisation responsible for planning a coup d’état to prevent the inauguration of the legitimately elected government in the 2022 elections”.
They all reportedly used their “advanced technical-military knowledge” to devise a “detailed operational plan” under the codenames “World Cup 2022” and “Green and Yellow Dagger” – a reference to the dominant colours of Brazil’s flag, which in recent years have been associated with far-right demonstrations.
Moraes himself signed the decision to authorise the arrests. In the document, he mentions that, according to the police investigations, “the goal of the criminal group was not only to ‘neutralise’ Moraes, but also to eliminate the winning presidential ticket by assassinating President Lula and vice-president Alckmin”.
The investigations also revealed that, to assassinate Lula, the suspects considered “the possibility of using poisoning or chemicals to cause an organic collapse”.
The decision points to the lack of full support among the members of the army’s high command as a possible reason why the plan was not effectively carried out.
Lula, who chaired the G20 meetings for the second and final day, has not yet commented on the case. His minister of communications, Paulo Pimenta, said the operation brought “new and extremely serious elements about the involvement of people from the core of Bolsonaro’s government in the coup. They tried to prevent the inauguration of the elected president and vice-president, and all of this only didn’t happen by a matter of detail,” he said.
The police uncovered the plot after recovering information from the phone of Bolsonaro’s former personal secretary, Lt Col Mauro Cid, who served as Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp during his 2019–2023 presidency.
The arrests were carried out on the same day Cid was summoned to give new testimony. He had previously been arrested as part of one of the numerous investigations into alleged crimes committed by the former president.
After spending four months in detention in 2023, he was released after signing a plea deal. However, in March this year, he was arrested again for publicly criticising the investigation and released in May. Police are now investigating whether he withheld information in his testimony.
As four of the five suspects are military personnel, the army oversaw the execution of the arrest warrants. The five are being charged with violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, attempted coup d’état, and criminal organisation.
