Judicial documents show that top Brazilian military leaders declared to police that former President Jair Bolsonaro presented to them a plan to reverse the results of the 2022 election he lost, but they refused and warned him that they would arrest him if he tried it.
Former President Jair Bolsonaro addresses supporters during a rally in Sao Paulo., Brazil, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. Bolsonaro and some of his former top aides are under investigation into allegations they attempted plotted a coup to remove his successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Former President Jair Bolsonaro addresses supporters during a rally in Sao Paulo., Brazil, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024.
Freire Gomes said he rejected the idea from the start and told Bolsonaro that such a move “could end in the legal responsibility of the then-president,” according to the federal police document. “Gen. Freire Gomes said that if such move was attempted he would have to arrest the president,” the police document reads.
Bolsonaro started raising unfounded questions about Brazil’s electronic voting process years before the vote, and those efforts to sow doubts accelerated in the lead up to the election that catapulted Lula back to the office he held between 2003-2010. But the testimonies are unlikely to have a significant impact on public opinion, said Manoel Galdino, a political scientist at the University of Sao Paulo.“There has been no major new revelation to the point of changing Bolsonaro’s status or the role he will play in the October municipal elections, for example,” said Galdino.