The Attorney General’s complaint, submitted to Brazil´s Supreme Court on Tuesday night (Feb. 18), reveals that former President Jair Bolsonaro was aware of and approved the planning and execution of actions to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
According to Attorney General Paulo Gonet, the plan, called “Yellow Green Dagger,” was devised and presented to the then-president, “who approved it.” “This occurred alongside a report in which the Ministry of Defense was compelled to acknowledge that no election fraud had been detected,” he said.
“The plan unfolded through meticulous actions, marked by their harmful intent. The Supreme Court was the target to be ‘neutralized,’ with plans to use weapons against Justice Alexandre de Moraes and poison to kill Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,” Gonet emphasized.
In addition to the former president, Brazil’s Attorney General’s complaint charges 33 others with attempted coup d’état, violent subversion of democratic rule of law, and criminal conspiracy. The charges also involve military personnel, including Walter Braga Netto, former Chief of Staff and Minister of Defense, and Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp.
The Attorney General’s complaint also reveals that other plans were found in the possession of the accused, one of which concluded with the phrase: “Lula will not ascend the ramp.”
Coup plan
Evidence that the plan went beyond the planning stage is the initial execution of Operation Copa 2022.
“The actions were carried out to track the neutralization targets, Justice Alexandre de Moraes and President-elect Lula da Silva. The plan included their deaths, using methods such as explosives, weapons, or poisoning,” states the Attorney General.
November 9, 2022, marked the start of the most violent phase of the coup plot. On that day, the “Yellow Green Dagger” plan was printed inside the Planalto presidential palace by former presidential advisor and army general Mário Fernandes, who was arrested during the investigations.
The document was taken by him the same day to the Alvorada Palace, the president’s official residence. Federal Police investigations reveal that Fernandes entered the palace at 5:48 p.m. on November 9.
“The president’s awareness of the plan and his approval of it are evidenced by subsequent conversations, which prove that Jair Bolsonaro closely monitored the progression of the scheme and the potential date for its full execution,” Gonet notes.
A WhatsApp audio obtained by federal police reveals that Mário Fernandes tells Mauro Cid he personally met with Jair Bolsonaro to discuss the ideal timing for the planned actions. In the audio, Fernandes says: “During the conversation with the president, he mentioned that the 12, due to the bum’s (Lula’s) inauguration, wouldn’t be a restriction, that anything we do could happen until December 31. But… at that point, I said, well, Mr. President, as soon as possible, we’ve already missed so many opportunities.”
The Attorney General also highlights in the indictment that the document presented to Bolsonaro referenced ongoing surveillance actions, further reinforcing that the top leadership of the criminal organization had prior knowledge of the plan to be carried out under the “Yellow Green Dagger” scheme.
According to the complaint to the Supreme Court, on December 15, 2022, the plan’s operators, with all preparations in place, only failed to finalize the agreement because they were unable, at the last minute, to co-opt the Army Command.
Secrecy lifted
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes lifted the secrecy on Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid’s plea bargain testimony, which served as the basis for the investigation that led to the accusation against former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro was charged by Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet with attempting a coup d’état, among other crimes. Another 33 people were also targeted.
In Wednesday’s ruling, Justice Moraes also set a 15-day deadline for the defenses to respond. Under the order, all the defendants are to be heard simultaneously, including Mauro Cid.
According to the accusation, the former president led a coup plot hatched in 2022, in the last months of his term, in a bid to stay in power after being defeated in that year’s presidential race.
One of the main allegations of the defenses is that they did not have access to the full text of Cid’s plea bargain. After lifting the secrecy after the charges, Moraes stated that the measure aims to “guarantee the adversarial process and a full defense.”
The allegations
“The members of the criminal organization structured at the presidential palace a plan to attack institutions, aiming to bring down the system of the powers and the democratic order, which received the sinister name of ‘Green and Yellow Dagger,'” Gonet said in the report.
“The plan was conceived and taken to the knowledge of the president, and he agreed to it,” he added.
The Supreme Court will now weigh the charges and decide whether to open a case against Bolsonaro, who has denied the charges, saying he is the victim of “persecution.”
Prosecutors based their decision on a more than 800-page federal police report released last year after a two-year investigation.
According to the prosecutor’s statement, the conspiracy began in 2021 with “systematic attacks on the electronic voting system, through public statements and on the internet.”
During the second round of the presidential election in October 2022, security agencies were mobilized to “prevent voters from voting for the opposition candidate,” according to the statement.
The accomplices involved at this stage worked to facilitate “the acts of violence and vandalism of January 8, 2023,” when Bolsonaro supporters stormed the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the criminal organization headed by Bolsonaro had pressured army chiefs “in favor of forceful actions in the political scene to prevent the elected president from taking office,” the statement said.
The prosecutor’s charges are based on the Federal Police (PF) investigation that concluded in November last year that there was a coup plot to prevent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s third term in office. The complaint will be heard by the STF’s First Panel made up of case rapporteur, Alexandre de Moraes, and Justices Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin, Cármen Lúcia, and Luiz Fux. If a majority of the justices accept the complaint, the defendants will face criminal charges before the STF.
According to the Court’s rules of procedure, it is up to the Court’s two panels to hear criminal cases. As the rapporteur is a member of the First Chamber, the indictment will be heard by the chamber. The trial date has not yet been set. Considering the legal procedures, the case could be tried in the first half of 2025.
Attorney General Paulo Gonet stated that the former president and General Braga Netto, a former minister and Bolsonaro’s running mate in the 2022 elections, played a leading role in carrying out a “conspiratorial plot armed and executed against democratic institutions.”
“The leaders of the organization were the President of the Republic himself and his vice-presidential candidate, General Braga Neto. Both of them accepted, encouraged, and carried out acts typified in criminal law as an attack against the legal asset of the existence and independence of the powers and the democratic rule of law,” Gonet said.
In his view, the indictment against Bolsonaro recounts the acts committed by a “structured criminal organization” to prevent the popular will demonstrated by the result of the 2022 elections, when Lula was elected president.
“The President of the Republic [Bolsonaro] adopted a growing tone of rupture with institutional normality in his repeated public pronouncements in which he was unhappy with decisions by higher courts and with the electronic electoral system in force. This escalation gained momentum when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, seen as the strongest contender in the 2022 election, became eligible due to the annulment of criminal convictions,” he added.
Gonet also underlined that the criminal group acted with violence and serious threats to prevent the functioning of the Powers of the Republic and to try to oust the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
According to the indictment, Bolsonaro had the help of allies, advisors, and generals to “trigger the criminal plan”, which would have occurred through the dissemination of disinformation against electronic ballot boxes, defiance of Supreme Court decisions, and encouragement of the coup plan, among other charges.
The full list of defendants is as follows: Ailton Gonçalves Moraes Barros, Alexandre Rodrigues Ramagem, Almir Garnier Santos, Anderson Gustavo Torres, Angelo Martins Denicoli, Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, Bernardo Romão Correa Netto, Carlos Cesar Moretzsohn Rocha, Cleverson Ney Magalhães, Estevam Cals Theophilo Gaspar de Oliveira, Fabrício Moreira de Bastos, Filipe Garcia Martins Pereira, Fernando de Sousa Oliveira, Giancarlo Gomes Rodrigues, Guilherme Marques de Almeida, Hélio Ferreira Lima, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, Marcelo Araújo Bormevet, Marcelo Costa Câmara, Márcio Nunes de Resende Júnior, Mário Fernandes, Marília Ferreira de Alencar, Mauro César Barbosa Cid, Nilton Diniz Rodrigues, Paulo Renato de Oliveira Figueiredo Filho, Paulo Sérgio Nogueira De Oliveira, Rafael Martins de Oliveira, Reginaldo Vieira de Abreu, Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo, Ronald Ferreira de Araújo Júnior, Sérgio Ricardo Cavaliere de Medeiros, Silvinei Vasques, Walter Souza Braga Netto, and Wladimir Matos Soares.
ABr/DW
