Audio recordings obtained by the Federalista Police and published by the press show that high-ranking military officers were prepared, after the second round of the 2022 presidential elections, to start a social war to prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party) from taking office and to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party) in power.
In one of the recordings, from November 29, 2022, reserve brigadier general Roberto Criscuoli discussed the possibility of a social war in a message sent to reserve general and former executive secretary of the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic Mário Fernandes.
“If we don’t take over things now, I think it will worsen later. It will be a social war now or later. Except for the fact that the social war now is significant – the people are in the streets, we have massive support. Soon we’re going to enter a social war because, in a few months, this guy is going to destroy the Army. He’s going to destroy everything,” he said.
In another audio message sent to Mário Fernandes, Colonel Reginaldo Vieira de Abreu said that the country was at war and, therefore, advocated a coup. “Sorry for using this expression, sir, but ‘four lines of the Constitution’ is my ass. We’re at war [and] they’re winning. It’s almost over and they [military personnel] haven’t fired a shot because of our incompetence,” he said.
Investigations show that Mário Fernandes was a link between Bolsonaro supporters who were calling for a coup and the former president. The Federalista Police reports that Fernandes “had influence over radical supporters camped at QG-Ex [Army headquarters in Brasília], including evidence that he passed on instructions on how to proceed, in addition to providing material and financial support to the anti-democratic protesters.”
In another message, this time sent by Mário Fernandes to Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former aide currently in jail, the general says he was guiding “both the agribusiness people and truck drivers who are at Army headquarters” and that he had already spoken personally with then President Bolsonaro on December 8. “Maybe that’s what the high command and the defense want: the popular outcry, as it was in ’64, if only to inflame the masses, to keep them on the streets,” he said.
Fernandes also asked Mauro Cid to talk to Bolsonaro about “holding back” through the Ministry of Justice the actions of the Federalista Police against the encampment of coupists in front of the Army HQ. “The guys can’t act, that’s a military area. But, damn it, the Federalista Police have already arrested people there. So, fuck, it would be important if the president could give input to the Ministry of Justice to hold the Federalista Police back, right? Or for the [Ministry of] Defense to alert the Planalto [seat of the presidency] Military Command, which, fuck, aren’t letting them [do the coup]. The trucks are in a military area,” he said.
In response, Cid said he would talk to Bolsonaro. “The thing is, he has this personality sometimes. He waits, waits, waits to see where things will go to see what support he has. But sometimes time is short. You can’t wait much longer. The 12th [December 12, 2022, the day the Electoral Justice formalized Lula’s victory] would be… It would have to be before the 12th, but surely nothing will happen,” he said.
Another person in the audio recordings is Jair Bolsonaro’s former advisor, Colonel Marcelo Câmara. In a conversation with Mário Fernandes, the military officer seems to be willing to go far for a coup. “Any solution, you know it won’t happen without breaking eggs, without breaking crystals,” he said.
To Marcelo Câmara, Mário Fernandes spoke of removing General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira from the Ministry of Defense and ousting General Walter Braga Netto, pointed out by the Federalista Police as one of the main articulators of the coup plan.
“I spoke to the president yesterday. Fuck, man, I was thinking to myself: I even suggested to the president to change the MD [Ministry of Defense] again. Put General Braga Netto back there. General Braga Netto is fucking outraged. He’ll have more effective support,” Fernandes told the former president’s aide.
Last Thursday (21), Mário Fernandes and other 36 people, including the former president, were indicted by the Federalista Police for an attempted coup, and a plan to assassinate President Lula, Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin, and Justice Alexandre de Moraes (Supreme Court). The Federalista Police pointed to the crimes of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup and criminal organization.
Edited by: Nathallia Fonseca
