Brazil court releases video from Bolsonaro ‘coup’ probe

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 10 — Brazil’s Supreme Court released a video yesterday of former president Jair Bolsonaro ordering Cabinet ministers to help him discredit the election system, a day after police targeted him for allegedly plotting a “coup.”

The video was central to Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ ruling authorising search and seizure raids Thursday targeting Bolsonaro and his inner circle over allegations they conspired to keep the far-right ex-army captain in power as it became clear he would lose Brazil’s October 2022 elections.

At the 90-minute meeting with top ministers on July 5, 2022, a shouting, swearing Bolsonaro claimed electoral authorities, the Supreme Court and other institutions were conspiring to hand victory to his archrival, veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“They’re preparing everything for Lula to win in the first round, fraudulently,” said the then president, who was ordered to surrender his passport Thursday pending the outcome of the investigation.

Advertisement

“Our Supreme Court is a power unto itself. It’s a Super Supreme Court, it decides everything — often against (the constitution). There’s no way we can win the election.”

Trailing Lula in the polls, Bolsonaro spent months attacking Brazil’s electronic voting system as fraud-prone, without presenting proof.

Last June, Brazil’s electoral tribunal barred him from running for office until 2030 over the claims.

Advertisement

“It doesn’t matter if I get 80 per cent of the vote, they’re going to win the elections,” Bolsonaro said at the July 2022 meeting.

“I’m going to have to act. But you can be sure I’m not going to fight this war by myself.

“I want every minister saying what I’m saying here,” he added.

“Any minister who doesn’t want to say it will have to answer to me... He’s in the wrong place.”

Investigators say a “criminal organisation” plotted a “coup” to keep Bolsonaro in power, starting by spreading disinformation about the voting system.

Bolsonaro ended up narrowly losing to Lula in a runoff.

On January 8, 2023, a week after Lula’s inauguration, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court, calling for the military to oust Lula and claiming the election was stolen. — AFP