Mauro Cid: PT will use testimony to target Bolsonaro – 7/10/2023 – Power

Former President Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) main assistant, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid will be heard in public for the first time this Tuesday (11), when he gives testimony to the CPI on January 8.

The base of the Lula government (PT) wants to exploit the proximity between Cid and Bolsonaro to bring the former president to the center of investigations into the coup attack that led to the invasion of the headquarters of the three Powers at the beginning of the year.

The opposition, on the other hand, is preparing to defend the aide-de-camp and attack the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court Alexandre de Moraes for the so-called “evidential fishing” – when a diligence is authorized without justified fact to collect possible evidence and try to “fish” for some crime. The session starts at 9 am.

Cid has been arrested since May on suspicions surrounding the forgery of his vaccination card, his wife, Bolsonaro’s youngest daughter and the former president himself. Supreme Minister Cármen Lúcia understood that he should go to the session, but he could remain silent so as not to produce evidence against himself.

On the eve of the statement, government supporters rescued a video of the former president in which he claims that Cid “is a trustworthy guy.” Aware that the military can exempt Bolsonaro from blame, the base must ask the Federal Police for a copy of the testimonies given by him.

Members of the opposition, on the other hand, seek to debunk the thesis that he acted in the coup attacks by Bolsonarists and tried to formulate the plan for a coup d’état.

“He received messages from half the world. It’s normal in the role he held”, says Bolsonarist senator Marcos Rogério (PL-RO), head of the CPI. “I would like him to talk about what happened, how it happened, and what is the work dynamics of an adjutant.”

Among members of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defense, there is an expectation that Cid will not wear a uniform. Despite being an active lieutenant colonel, the assessment is that going in official attire could lead the barracks even further into the crisis of the coup d’état.

Despite this, there are many career colleagues who show solidarity with him and unite in criticizing Moraes’ methods. One of the reasons is also the fact that his father, General Mauro Cid, is respected in the environment. According to reports, the official is upset because he understands that the son was abandoned by the former president.

Even having been summoned to talk about the content of the messages exchanged after Lula’s victory —especially with Army Colonel Jean Lawand Júnior, who testified last month—, Cid may be the target of questions ranging from jewelry brought from Arabia Arabia to the purchases of former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro.

One of the questions that members of the CPI must ask is about why he held conversations with military personnel who defended an armed intervention to prevent Lula’s inauguration. In addition, the former aide-de-camp should be asked why he kept a draft in his cell phone that determined a state of siege and decreed a GLO operation (Guarantee of Law and Order).

The government’s base should also address whether Cid took the requests for intervention made by the military to Bolsonaro and what was the former president’s reaction.

In this area, the former aide-de-camp will also be asked about the backstage of the post-election period.

The message in defense of the coup and the draft of intervention in the Electoral Justice found in the house of former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres, a document revealed by the Sheet.

Also from this period is the audio in which former Army major Ailton Barros talks to another soldier about moving 1,500 soldiers to arrest Alexandre de Moraes.

Parliamentarians from the government base want to know if these soldiers would be mobilized in the 1st Battalion of Command Actions. Cid was even nominated by Jair Bolsonaro to command this battalion, based in Goiânia, but his appointment was canceled by the Lula government after the content of his cell phone became public.

Other topics, in addition to coup attacks, should be the subject of questions. One of them is Bolsonaro’s attempt, with the help of Cid, to recover the Saudi Arabian jewels seized by the Federal Revenue Service at Guarulhos airport in 2021.

CPI members want to know what would be the fate of the jewels if they were removed from the Revenue and why the attempt to seek the pieces was made only in the last days of government.

The military, at the time, participated directly in the attempt and even sent a member of the order’s staff to Guarulhos in search of gifts from Saudi Arabia.

Mauro Cid should also be questioned about the suspicious transactions discovered by the Federal Police as a result of his breach of telematic and bank secrecy.

On this topic, among other points, parliamentarians should ask the origin of the money used by him and other orderlies to pay Michelle Bolsonaro’s bills and why transactions were carried out in cash and fractional withdrawals.