Last night, Brazil's federal police went public with the evidence it is using for its indictments of former president Bolsonaro and his cronies for plotting to enact a military coup in 2022. Our correspondent Brian Mier has more.
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00:00On Tuesday night, Brazil's Federal Police made public with the evidence it is using for its indictments
00:05of former President Bolsonaro and his cronies for plotting to enact a military coup in 2022.
00:11Our correspondent Brian Meir has more.
00:17Last night in Brasilia, the Federal Police released an 882-page report on the indictments
00:24they made last week of 37 people for planning to plot a military coup to prevent Luiz Inácio Lula
00:32da Silva from taking power in January 2023. Among those indicted, former President Jair Bolsonaro,
00:39Vice Presidential Candidate Walter Braga Neto, a general who first became active during Brazil's
00:45brutal military dictatorship which ended in 1985, General Augusto Heleno, who was implicated
00:52in an auto-coup attempt led by his boss, General Silvio Frota, in the late 1970s.
01:00Frota, Wagner Neto, and Augusto Heleno were all members of an internal group within the military
01:07of hardliners called the Tigradas, which never conformed to the return of civilian rule. Now,
01:12according to the report, the evidence, which is based on testimonies of plea bargains,
01:18recorded conversations, documental evidence, and also conversations and chat groups between
01:25the different plotters, shows that there were six cells created to help move forward the plans of
01:33the coup. One of them started in 2021 and used social media to try and undermine the population's
01:38confidence in the electoral system. Another one was tasked with covert activities. Among these
01:44covert activities were the planned assassinations of Lula, Alckmin, and Moraes. Now, it's interesting
01:49to note that the meetings where the planning took place for these assassinations took place in the
01:55house of General Walter Braga Neto. So, for now, as the population processes all of this information,
02:03the Attorney General has the responsibility of opening formal charges. The sources I have in
02:10Brasilia tell me that this is probably going to happen after the Christmas holiday in the beginning of 2025.