Federal Police (PF) investigations regarding the incidents after the last presidential election, in 2022, revealed a series of elements that indicate a two-dimensions plan to obstruct Lula’s certification as president and for taking over the political power in the country, according to local media sources.
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Inquiries
The understandings disclosed by media outlets are based on the findings of inquiries into the attack the took place on 12 December, and 8 January, both in Brasília. In addition, the inquiries that investigate the Federal Highway Police actions on the day of the elections’ second round and the digital militias have contributed as well.
Two Dimensions
The supposed plan would be based on two dimensions: On one hand, the operational one, which presupposed the organization of demonstrations, roadblocks and riots like the one on December 12th, when cars and buses were burned in the central area of Brasília after the arrest of an indigenous leader for anti-democratic acts.
The other nucleus was the political one, which worked on a kind of “legal framework” to justify the exceptional measures to be taken as soon as one of these “popular” riot initiatives was successful. The draft of a decree found in the home of former Justice Minister Anderson Torres, which according to Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp, Mauro Cid, would have been discussed with commanders of the Armed Forces, would be part of this “legal step”.
“Black Kids”
In both dimensions there would have been a notable presence of the so-called “black kids”, soldiers from the Special Forces, the elite troops of the Army. The Federal Police have already made progress, for example, in collecting evidence that there were members of the FE on the Esplanada dos Ministérios in the midst of the turmoil on 8 January, applying insurgency and urban guerrilla tactics and guiding the protesters to invade the headquarters of the Três Powers Plaza.
Removing the Armed Forces from Politics
The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) unanimously decided to remove the Armed Forces and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) from the list of entities authorized to supervise the Brazilian electoral process. The decision was taken in a plenary session on Tuesday (26/10).
With the change, the bodies were no longer part of the list of institutions authorized to monitor the audit phases of ballot boxes and electoral systems, after the presence of the military in this process was politically exploited by then-president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the 2022 elections.
The participation of the Armed Forces in monitoring elections was at the center of Bolsonaro and his allies’ strategy of questioning the reliability of electronic voting machines and placing the fairness of elections in Brazil under suspicion.
The Armed Forces were included in the list of entities monitoring the election in 2021, by decision of the then president of the TSE, Luís Roberto Barroso. The measure, whose objective was to reduce Bolsonaro’s demonstrations that questioned the voting system’s reliability, was seen by the Judiciary as a mistake, as the military’s actions gave Bolsonaro even more capacity to attack the polls and create distrust in the electoral process.
