Brazil’s federal police have arrested five officers over an alleged 2022 plot to assassinate then-president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as part of a planned coup d’etat.
According to a statement issued by police on Tuesday, the plot, code-named ‘Green and Yellow Dagger’ in an apparent reference to the colors of Brazilian flag, was conceived in late 2022, before Lula took office. It included plans to capture or kill Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
Authorities have said the men were arrested in an operation to “dismantle a criminal organization responsible for planning a coup d’etat to prevent the government legitimately elected in the 2022 elections from taking office.”
The alleged plot also involved other military personnel with special forces training, according to the
statement.
Police have said they have carried out three search warrants and taken other measures. The statement did not specify when charges would officially be brought against the five suspects.
Federal investigators have yet to explain why the plan wasn’t ultimately carried out. The country’s Secretary of Social Communication, Paulo Pimenta, told reporters on Tuesday that it probably “did not occur due to details.” According to the Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, the suspects “came very close” to achieving their objective.
According to media reports citing an arresting order, one of the suspects is retired General Mario Fernandes, who was a senior advisor at the time to then-incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, whom Lula had just defeated in an election.
Lula returned as Brazil’s president in January 2023 for a third, non-consecutive term after narrowly defeating Bolsonaro in October 2022. The outgoing head of state then went on to insist that the race had been stolen from him, claiming that a “malfunction” had affected thousands of electronic voting machines. His supporters took to the streets, erecting barricades on highways and storming the presidential palace in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, just one week after Lula’s inauguration.
Some of the rioters called for a military coup to prevent Lula from assuming power.
Bolsonaro, who by that time had left for the US, later called for an end to the unrest and greenlit the commencement of the transition process.
Bolsonaro’ lawyer, Paulo Cunha Bueno, told the New York Times this week that the former president had no involvement in or knowledge of the plot. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, calling the investigation political persecution, according to his attorney.
Fernandes gave instructions and financial support to the protesters at the time, AP has reported, citing details of the investigation. His plan reportedly also considered different scenarios for assassinating Judge de Moraes. Investigators found messages and documents indicating that the plotters were monitoring and following the justice.
The plan also described a scenario of poisoning Lula, with one of the arrested officers allegedly providing the other military coup plotters information about the then-president-elect’s security.
Police also seized a document detailing a planned overthrow of the elected government, including the orchestration of a probe into alleged election fraud, and calling for new elections via a presidential decree backed by Congress.
The suspected coup-plotters allegedly intended to set up a ‘crisis cabinet’ afterwards, which they would control, the police said.