Bolsonaro to surrender his passport, suspected of “coup attempt”.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was targeted by a police operation on Thursday as part of an investigation into suspicions. “attempted coup” – which culminated in the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasilia – and will return his passport to the authorities. “Regarding the decisions taken today”Bolsonaro will “Surrender your passport to the authorities”, wrote on X (formerly Twitter), Fabio Wagengarten, lawyer and close associate of the former head of state (2019-2022). The Federal Police announced in a press release that they had launched a massive operation with 33 search warrants and 4 arrest warrants as part of the investigation. “A criminal organization that participated in a coup attempt to gain political advantage by maintaining the president of the day in power (…)”.

The president in question is Jair Bolsonaro, who was defeated in a re-election bid against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in October 2022. On January 8, 2023, a week after Lula’s inauguration, thousands of Bolsonistas ransacked places of power in Brasilia, similar to the storming of the Capitol two years earlier in the United States.

Four generals were targeted by Thursday’s operation, such as Walter Braga Netto, the former defense minister, and Augusto Heleno, the vice-presidential candidate and former minister of the institutional security cabinet, along with Jair Bolsonaro, perhaps we read in the legal document of the proceedings. .

“Incessant Persecution”

Federal police speak of an attempt “To legitimize military intervention, to spread suspicions of fraud in the 2022 presidential election even before the polls take place”. The plan will initially include this “Spreading Misinformation About Vulnerabilities of Electronic Voting System”. Then the police mentioned “The practice of acts of overthrowing the democratic rule of law through military-backed coups”.

Sentenced to eight years of disqualification last year for spreading false information on an electronic voting system, Jair Bolsonaro has been particularly dogged by the profession for corruption since he leaves power at the end of 2022. “It has been more than a year since I have ruled and I have suffered constant oppression”The former president revealed to a reporter from the daily Folha de São Paulo on Thursday. “Forget me, there is someone else to rule the country”, he added. Last week, one of Bolsonaro’s sons was targeted by another police operation as part of an investigation into illegal espionage under the former far-right president’s government.