What is known so far about the participation of the GSI in the invasion of the Planalto Palace

New images of the invasion of the Planalto Palace on January 8, made public this weekend following a determination by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), brought more details about the actions of the vandals and the reactions of federal authorities to the episode. The government had imposed five-year secrecy on the entirety of the material, after a request for access to the images made by the press.

Depositions given by nine agents of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) to the Federal Police (PF) this Sunday (23) also helped to illustrate what happened at the Executive headquarters that day. See below the main revelations about the case.

Main entrance to Planalto was not broken into

The images revealed by the GSI itself on Saturday (22) show a small contingent of civil and military agents trying to contain the invasion of the Planalto Palace.

Around 3:10 pm, military police tried to set up an isolation cordon on the ramp that gives access from Praça dos Três Poderes to Salão Nobre, but without success. About 15 minutes later, the ramp is taken over by demonstrators and the military is seen retreating, while firing tear gas at the crowd.

The invasion of the seat of government did not take place through this main access to the building, which is on the second floor, but through the ground floor.

It is also possible to see that, in this entrance, after retreating, one of the guards leans against the main door, but leaves an open gap that is later enlarged by the invaders. Another camera also captured people destroying computers and equipment in the hall at around 3:25 pm.

GSI agents showed no resistance to attackers

The invaders took the third floor, where the presidential office is located, around 3:30 pm. Few GSI agents and employees are seen circulating around the Planalto Palace, without making an attempt to repress or arrest the demonstrators. The small force of the Military Police that was inside the Planalto Palace only managed to remove them from this floor around 4:30 pm, using non-lethal ammunition.

The recordings also show that one of the GSI agents at the time, Major José Eduardo Natale, offered bottles of mineral water to the invaders in the anteroom of the presidential office, without expressing any reaction to their movement, only with instructions that they should go down – not even at the moment when one of them picks up a fire extinguisher to use in further acts of vandalism.

The agents said they adopted a “crisis management protocol” to prevent further damage that would put their own lives at risk. The statements were given in statements by nine military personnel on Sunday (23) and by the former minister of the GSI, General Marco Edson Gonçalves Dias, who resigned last week after the revelations of images that showed him circulating through the corridors of the Planalto Palace during the invasion.

The deponents also said that they treated the demonstrators in a “friendly” tone due to “exalted spirits”, trying to remove them from the third and fourth floors of the Palace to the second in the first moments of the invasion, where they were supposed to be arrested.

“Asked why on the 3rd and 4th floors he led people and did not personally carry out the arrest, he replied that he was carrying out crisis management and these people would be arrested by security agents on the 2nd floor as soon as they went down, as that was the protocol ”, portrayed the PF about the ex-minister’s testimony.

The former minister also said that he did not give an order to “evacuate the invaders from the building, but if by chance any of his subordinates gave that order, he was not aware of it”. He also stated that he gave an arrest order and that “more than 200 were carried out” after the arrival of reinforcements, accounting for 487 military personnel and 520 military police officers at the end of the operation.

The first records of arrests, on video, were made only at 5:48 pm, more than an hour after he ordered the demonstrators to go to the second floor of the building, where the main access to the building is located. It is necessary to consider, however, that not all the cameras in the Planalto Palace were working at that time, several were destroyed by the invaders.

The arrests were recorded minutes after the arrival of reinforcements from the Military Police to Planalto, around 5:30 pm. The support came moments after the then executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Ricardo Cappelli, was appointed intervenor of the Secretariat of Public Security of the Federal District and ordered the presence of more police and riot police in the headquarters of the Three Powers.

President got angry with invasion and ministers discussed among themselves

The images released over the weekend also show discussions between members of the government, such as when President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) inspected the damage caused to the Planalto Palace with the first lady, Rosângela da Silva, the Janja, ministers, allies and other members of the executive branch.

Ministers Flávio Dino (Justice), José Múcio (Defense) and Rui Costa (Civil House), seem to be having heated conversations, with pointed fingers and discussions while analyzing the damage on the third floor of the building.

At first, Dino addressed Múcio gesticulating while he was on the phone, next to senators Jaques Wagner (PT-BA) and Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), government allies. Afterwards, the Minister of Justice leaves the scene and it is Costa who begins to argue with his Defense partner.

Although the images did not record the audio of the conversations, the Minister of Defense was charged by other members of the government for the removal of the camp set up in front of the Army Headquarters, in Brasília. The president had determined the demobilization later that day, but the eviction only took place the following morning.

Former minister says there was a “general blackout” of the system

The low security staff at the Planalto Palace was justified by Gonçalves Dias as a “general blackout of the system due to the lack of information for decision-making”. In his testimony to the Federal Police, he said that the reports from the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) did not inform the degree of risk classification for the authorities’ day.

“Asked if he received intelligence information from Abin regarding the increase in bus flow and the arrival of people after January 6 to BSB [Brasília]informed that he did not receive any intelligence report”, reports the PF about the testimony.

He also complained that the GSI had not been called by the DF Public Security Secretariat to participate in the elaboration of the security scheme for that day, when there would be a demonstration by members of the movement camped in front of the Army HQ.

The doubts raised about the performance of the GSI, however, did not change the image of a “man of confidence” that Gonçalves Dias had with President Lula. In an interview published over the weekend, Ricardo Cappelli said that the images released in full will demonstrate that “there is no possibility of inferring” his conduct.

“General Gonçalves Dias is a servant with decades of service to the Brazilian State. Now it is very important that people see the images without the cuts, without the editing, because the cuts were made with the clear intention of targeting the government and the general”, he said.

The president, on the other hand, limited himself to saying that the former minister “left on his own”, without going into details about the ally’s conduct.