Brazilian police arrested five people over an alleged plot to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022, authorities reported.
The Brazilian Federal Police launched “Operation Counterstrike” on Tuesday (19) to dismantle the criminal organization allegedly responsible for planning a coup d’état aimed at preventing President Lula from taking office after the 2022 elections. The plan included the assassination of both the president and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, according to the scheme.
“A detailed operational plan called ‘Green and Yellow Dagger’ was discovered, to be executed on December 15, 2022. It aimed to assassinate the elected candidates for president and vice president,” the police reported.
The criminals also planned to restrict the free exercise of the Judiciary. “There were also plans to arrest and execute a Supreme Court minister who had been continuously monitored, should the coup d’état be carried out,” the police said.
The plan included the eventual creation of an “Institutional Crisis Management Office” in the Brazilian government, which would be controlled by the coup plotters, according to the police.
Former president accused of participating in the alleged plot
According to a police warrant executed on Tuesday, signed by Supreme Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes, Bolsonaro allegedly met with Army and Navy officials, as well as the Minister of Defense, in December 2022, to present a document detailing the legal framework that would keep him in power.
The former president has repeatedly denied allegations of attempting a coup. His son, Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator in the Brazilian Congress, suggested in a post on X that the five suspects did not commit a crime.
“As repugnant as it is to think about killing someone, it is not a crime. And for there to be an attempt, the execution must be interrupted by some situation beyond the control of the authors. Which does not seem to have happened,” he wrote.
Sources: Agência Brasil and CNN