Army colonel targeted in PF operation is arrested in the USA

Operation Target Tempus Veritatis, targeting allies of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), Army colonel, Bernardo Romão Corrêa Netto, was arrested this Thursday afternoon (8) in the United States, where he was on a mission.

The colonel is accused of using military techniques to direct the anti-Lula protesters camped at the barracks doors and, later, in the events on January 8, 2023.

Corrêa Netto is the third soldier arrested this Thursday as part of the PF operation. The other two are Army colonel and former Bolsonaro advisor, Marcelo Câmara, and Army Special Forces major, Rafael Martins.

Câmara is mentioned in the investigations investigating the alleged sale of official gifts from the past administration and the alleged fraud on the former president’s family’s vaccination cards and Martins is accused of involvement in the alleged attempted coup d’état on 8/1.

Jair Bolsonaro’s former international affairs advisor, Filipe G. Martins, was also the subject of an arrest warrant. Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp, mentioned in his statement that Martins had taken the draft of a decree that would supposedly allow Bolsonaro to establish a state of defense at the headquarters of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) after the defeat to Lula in the election.

The PF reportedly found a copy of this draft in its searches at the residence of Anderson Torres, who was the Secretary of Security of the Federal District on January 8, 2023, and who had been Minister of Justice in the government of Jair Bolsonaro.

At the end, the paper had space for Bolsonaro’s signature, however, without a signature. For this reason, according to jurists, the so-called “coup draft” should have been treated as a piece of paper with no value for investigations, since even if it were signed, it would still need to be approved by Congress.

In total, 37 arrest, search and seizure warrants were served in nine states and the Federal District

The PF’s action takes place one day after Bolsonaro held an event in the city of São Sebastião (SP), in which he said that “the current president [Lula] wants to censor social media […] I’m only here with you thanks to social media.”