Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, during a rally held Tuesday at a restaurant at an amusement park in Orlando, Florida. JOE SKIPPER (Portal)
A Brazilian senator assured at a press conference in Brasilia this Thursday that an adviser to Jair Bolsonaro had invited him, in the presence of the then president, to take part in a conspiracy to prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking power. According to Senator Marcos del Val’s report, the proposal was formulated by former Bolsonaro deputy and adviser Daniel Silveira and the president “listened to it in silence”. The senator was to use his close relationship with Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the highest electoral authority and scourge of Bolsonarismo, to secretly tape a compromising statement that would allow his arrest. That would trigger an unprecedented institutional crisis that the conspiracy said would start a process to annul the election and prevent the victor, Lula, from assuming the presidency.
The revelations have become the talk of the day in Brazil because they are the strongest evidence yet of Bolsonaro’s involvement in a coup. Bolsonaro has not yet commented on the allegations. The former president remains in the United States, whose authorities he has applied for a tourist visa to extend his stay. He is still in Florida, where he arrived two days before the end of his term. After months of questioning the electoral system, the recount and the electoral authorities, the far-right has never openly admitted defeat.
Judge Moraes, who is also investigating the attack on those in power and on Bolsonaro over his promotion, has ordered the complaining senator to be questioned by police about the December 9 meeting, three weeks before the end of his term.
In any event, over the hours and after speaking to Bolsonaro’s children over the phone, the senator’s complainant changed relevant elements of his story. It’s not even certain where the meeting between him, the president and the former deputy who proposed the plan took place. Between the first and last version, Bolsonaro’s level of involvement varies. From the fact that he was the President who hired him to record the judge, to silently listening as his adviser framed the proposal without approving or rejecting it. And it so happens that De Val first gave an interview to Veja magazine, then announced it on networks, and finally offered a press conference.
De Val is a police officer who entered the Senate in 2018 on the anti-system and anti-politics wave led by Bolsonaro. He is in the middle of an eight-year term in the House of Lords.
The third protagonist is another former police officer, also elected deputy four years ago, who has distinguished himself as one of the most radical Bolsonaro MPs through his constant attacks on the Supreme Court and its members. Last April, the Supreme Court sentenced him to nine years in prison for attacking democracy, but the fact is he was free. He was arrested again this Thursday and accused of disobeying court decisions and laughing at the justice system.
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