Planalto battalion commander changes position even under investigation for inaction in coup acts – 01/24/2023 – Politics

The commander of the BGP (Presidential Guard Battalion), Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Paulo Fernandes da Hora, will leave his post this week and will be reassigned to the General Staff of the Planalto Military Command.

The change occurs while Fernandes’ conduct during the attacks on the headquarters of the Powers, on January 8, is investigated by an Army IPM (Police-Military Inquiry).

In his place, lieutenant-colonel Nélio Moura Bertolino, an infantry officer who graduated from Aman (Military Academy of Agulhas Negras) in 1999, takes over command of the BGP.

Despite the pressure for Fernandes to leave the command position, the change had already been foreseen since May 2022, according to internal documents obtained by the Sheet.

The change is part of the new assignments planned for the Army for the 2023-2024 biennium – Fernandes had been in command of the battalion since 2021 and leaves the role on January 27.

Fernandes’ situation should be clarified this Tuesday (24) by the commander of the Army, Tomás Paiva, to the other 15 generals who make up the High Command of the Force.

The collegiate meeting will officially begin this Tuesday afternoon, despite the fact that most of the generals have been talking since the morning at the Army HQ, in Brasília.

Lieutenant-colonel Fernandes came under fire and became the target of a frying process after videos made by police circulated during the invasion of vandals to the Planalto Palace on January 8.

The recordings show the military man arguing with the police about the arrest of the extremists. In the version that circulates in the Planalto Palace, Fernandes would have made it difficult for the radical Bolsonarists to be arrested – which could demonstrate the military’s connivance with the coup acts.

In the Army, Fernandes told interlocutors that he did not act with leniency. According to reports made to Sheetthe military has defended that it acted that way after the coup plotters were all contained, sitting on the floor of the second floor of the Palace.

The version in the barracks argues that the lieutenant colonel argued with the police because they would be excited after a colleague of theirs, who was policing on horseback, was beaten by coup plotters moments before the invasion of Planalto. For that reason, according to the war of versions, Fernandes would have tried to contain the impetus of the police when the situation was under control.

The survey also assesses the coordination of security at the Planalto Palace on January 8 with the GSI (Institutional Security Office).

The portfolio, commanded by General Gonçalves Dias, did not prepare a special security plan for the day of the attacks on the headquarters of the Powers. The BGP troops did not arrive, in small numbers, until 1pm on Sunday.

In addition to the Fernandes case, the Army High Command will begin discussions this Tuesday on maintaining the appointment of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid to command the 1st Command Action Battalion, in Goiânia —one of the Army’s elite battalions, headquartered about 200 km from Brasilia.

Deputy of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), Cid is the target of investigation by the Federal Police for suspicious transactions carried out in favor of the presidential family, as revealed by the Sheet.