Brazilian police arrested five individuals on Tuesday, including a former cabinet minister under ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, on suspicion of plotting to assassinate then-President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in late 2022, shortly before his inauguration.
Police said documents seized during the investigation outlined a plan to kill Lula and Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin, either through poisoning or a shooting. The alleged scheme aimed to install retired army generals Augusto Heleno, Bolsonaro's former national security adviser, and Braga Netto, his former defence minister, as interim leaders to organise new elections.
The conspiracy also reportedly targeted a Supreme Court justice, with plans to use poison or an explosive device, according to a police statement.
The Army confirmed the arrests of retired Brigadier General Mario Fernandes, who had served as a deputy minister in Bolsonaro's cabinet, and Lieutenant Colonels Helio Ferreira Lima, Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo and Rafael Martins de Oliveira.
The officers were in Rio de Janeiro but were not involved in the security operation for the summit of leaders of the G20 group of major economies in the city, according to the Army statement.
Most of the men under investigation in the alleged 2022 coup plot are military personnel with Special Forces training, or close aides to Bolsonaro, a hard-right former army officer who won the presidency in 2018.
The arrests were the first time the federal police had described a plot to kill Lula and Alckmin and stage a coup to prevent him from returning to power.
Police identified the main plotter as Fernandes, who was found in possession of a plot outline that had been printed at the presidential palace.
"A detailed operational plan called 'Green and Yellow Dagger' was identified, which would be executed on December 15, 2022, aimed at the murder of the elected candidates for president and vice president," the police said in a statement.
Federal police served five arrest warrants on Tuesday, without naming the men arrested, as well as three search and seizure warrants and other 15 precautionary measures.
These included banning suspects from contacting others and forbidding them from leaving the country.
"Investigations indicate that the criminal organization used a high level of technical-military knowledge to plan, coordinate and execute illicit actions in November and December 2022," the police statement said.
Lula defeated Bolsonaro in a presidential election in October 2022 and the leftist leader took office on Jan. 1, 2023. Bolsonaro had filled his government with military officers, many of them opposed to Lula.
Bolsonaro left Brazil days before Lula's inauguration for Florida and never recognized his electoral defeat. He eventually returned to Brazil and is under investigation for his alleged role in encouraging the riots in Brasilia on Jan. 8, 2023, when his supporters stormed and vandalized government buildings in the capital, hoping to cause chaos and spur the military to take power.
A federal police investigation will conclude that Bolsonaro conspired to engineer the attempted coup after he lost the election, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation told Reuters. The probe is expected to be finished this month.
Bolsonaro has made no public comment on the coup plot allegations. Reuters was trying to reach representatives of the former president and Fernandes for comment.
The Brazilian army monitored the federal operation against the coup plotters, which was carried out on Tuesday in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, Goias and Amazonas states.
According to the sources Reuters spoke to, the plotters also planned to kill Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who led investigations into Bolsonaro for abuse of power and unproven attacks on Brazil's voting system when he was president and banned him from running for elected office until 2030.
More than 2,000 people were arrested for participating in the January 2023 uprising in Brasilia, although most were later released. Others have been convicted by the Supreme Court on charges of involvement in an attempted coup.
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