Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is one of the targets of the operation ‘Tempus Veritatis’, launched on Thursday (8) by the Federal Police to investigate the existence of an alleged criminal organization that attempted a coup d’état.
The Minister of the Supreme Federal Court, Alexandre de Moraes, ordered federal agents to seize Bolsonaro’s passport as part of the crackdown. The arrest warrants also target direct advisors of the former president, including military personnel.
The operation was launched after Bolsonaro’s former advisor, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, signed a plea bargain agreement with federal investigators. The agreement was sent to the Attorney General’s Office and ratified by the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, 33 search and seizure warrants and four preventive arrest orders were executed. In total, 48 precautionary measures were ordered by Minister Moraes, including prohibiting the investigated individuals from contacting each other or leaving Brazil.
“Investigations indicate that the group was divided into cells to disseminate fraud in the 2022 presidential elections, even before they took place, in order to enable and legitimize a military intervention, in a dynamic of digital militia,” the police reported.
The Accusations
Bolsonaro and dozens of advisors, ministers, and military leaders coordinated efforts to undermine public confidence in the elections and prepare the ground for a potential coup, the Federal Police said.
Their efforts included spreading information about electoral fraud, crafting legal arguments for new elections, recruiting military personnel to support a coup, surveilling judges, and encouraging and guiding protesters who eventually invaded government buildings, according to the police.
The Defense
On X (formerly Twitter), lawyer Fabio Wajngarten, an advisor to Bolsonaro, wrote that “in compliance with today’s decisions,” the former president will surrender his passport to the authorities.
Bolsonaro told the newspaper Folha de São Paulo that he is an innocent victim of an operation with political motivations.
“I left the government over a year ago and continue to suffer relentless persecution. ‘Forget me. There is already another person governing the country,’ he said.
Bolsonaro has already been deemed ineligible until 2030 due to his attempts to undermine the voting system. However, the accusations revealed on Thursday show that Brazilian authorities believe the former president and his allies executed a much more organized plan to subvert Brazil’s young democracy.
Source: Agência Brasil and The New York Times