8/1 CPI rapporteur suggests indicting Bolsonaro – 10/17/2023 – Power

The January 8 CPI rapporteur, senator Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA), suggested the indictment of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and former ministers General Augusto Heleno, General Walter Braga Netto, and Anderson Torres.

Gama targeted the “hard core” of Bolsonarism to point out that the former president was surrounded by coup movements — which reached their peak on January 8, with the destruction of the Planalto Palace, Congress and the STF.

Bolsonaro’s participation in the coup plot, according to the senator, was exposed by programmer Walter Delgatti Neto, the Vaza Jato hacker, and through the plea bargain of his main aide-de-camp, lieutenant colonel Mauro Cid.

In testimony to the CPI, Delgatti said that Bolsonaro’s campaign planned to fake the invasion of an electronic voting machine in 2022, and that the former president himself asked him to wiretap conversations with minister Alexandre de Moraes.

Different coup drafts circulated around Bolsonaro after Lula’s victory. One of them, found in Torres’ closet, authorized the former president to establish a state of defense at the headquarters of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court). Another was located on Cid’s cell phone.

Throughout the investigations, Gama tried to reconstruct the coup’s rise after Lula’s (PT) victory, starting with the blitzes carried out by the PRF (Federal Highway Police) in the second round to make it more difficult for PT voters to vote.

The rapporteur suggested, for example, that former PRF director Silvinei Vasques be indicted. Vasques has been detained since August at the request of the Federal Police for the same suspicions.

Another CPI target was the camp set up in front of the Army headquarters, in Brasília, after Bolsonaro’s defeat. The rapporteur calls for the indictment of former Army commander General Freire Gomes, and General Gustavo Dutra, former head of the Planalto Military Command.

The timeline constructed by the rapporteur also mentions the attacks that occurred in Brasília in the final stretch of the Bolsonaro government: the attempted invasion of the PF headquarters — and the trail of destruction caused by Bolsonaro supporters on the day —, in addition to the placement of a bomb near the airport.

Gama also detailed the role of soldiers trained in the Army’s special forces, the so-called “black kids”, and suggested the indictment of General Ridauto Fernandes, former director of Logistics at the Ministry of Health during the Bolsonaro government.

“The January 8th invasions failed in their darkest aims, but the attacks on democracy continue,” Gama wrote. “January 8th is not over yet, there is an urgent need for the surveillance system to be permanent.”

The report — of more than 1,300 pages — will be voted on in this Wednesday’s session (18). The document, mandatory for parliamentary commissions of inquiry, can only suggest indictments to responsible authorities, such as the Federal Public Ministry.

The main opposition report suggests holding President Lula himself responsible, in addition to GDias, Dino, the former intervenor and number two at the Ministry of Justice, Ricardo Capelli, and the former director of Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) Saulo Moura.

The document also calls for the indictment of the general commander of the DF Military Police on January 8, Colonel Klepter Rosa Gonçalves, and the then head of the corporation’s Operational Department, Lieutenant Colonel Paulo José.

In a second opposition report, senator Izalci Lucas (PSDB-DF) also defended the indictment of Dino and GDias.