the word “extremely serious”used on Tuesday, November 19 by the Brazilian authorities, does not seem exaggerated. The federal police made public the existence of a plot, orchestrated at the end of 2022 and at the highest level by far-right military personnel, aimed at assassinating the elected president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and other public figures, with the aim of de trigger a coup d’état.
A police officer and four soldiers were arrested on Tuesday during an operation called “Contragolpe” and ordered by Alexandre de Moraes, judge of the Federal Supreme Court. Among them are three active lieutenant colonels and, above all, a reserve general, Mario Fernandes, former commander of the army’s special forces.
All are suspected of having planned the assassination of Lula, winner of the October 2022 presidential election against outgoing far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, to prevent him from taking office on the 1st.Ahem January 2023. The military also claimed “neutralize” the elected vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, and Judge Moraes, bête noire of the Bolsonarists, then president of the Superior Electoral Court.
Called “Green and Yellow Dagger”, the coup plotters’ plan was carefully prepared “typical of a special military operation”, the police insisted. According to the documents obtained, the military would have accurately evaluated the risks and costs of the operation, as well as the necessary equipment: bulletproof vests, low-frequency radios, rifles, pistols, machine guns, grenade launchers and even a spear. -rocket. “An arsenal of war”, the authorities summarized.
The planned murder of Judge Moraes
According to the latter, the conspirators used country code names to refer to each other (“Germany”, “Brazil”, “Ghana”, “Japan”…) as well as to evoke their targets (“Jeca” for Lula and “Joca”. ”for Mr. Alckmin). About the president-elect, who was then 77 years old and whose health status was judged ” vulnerable “soldiers would have considered resorting to poisoning with a drug “which would cause organic collapse”.
According to the police, the kidnapping and murder of Alexandre de Moraes, a prelude to the coup d’état, was scheduled for December 15, 2022. That day, around 8:30 p.m., several members of the group would have positioned themselves in Brasilia on a road taken by the judge leading to his private residence. However, the operation was aborted a few minutes later for reasons that remain a mystery.
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