Federal police uncover new evidence of attempted coup
The Brazilian federal police have notified Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Court that they have found new evidence of the attempted coup at the end of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s istration.
The findings have been sent to the court. They were obtained from the cell phone of federal police officer Wlir Matos Soares, arrested last year following orders from Justice Moraes, rapporteur on the cases related to attempt to keep Bolsonaro in power.
Soares is under investigation for allegedly acting as an undercover agent to leak information about President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s security during the government transition period. He was a member of the security team responsible for the surroundings of the hotel where the president was staying in Brasília.
The voice notes obtained were sent from December 2022 to January 2023, a period marked by Lula’s inauguration and the pro-coup riots of January 8.
According to the investigators, the officer acted as an “auxiliary” of the Punhal Verde-Amarelo (“Yellow-Green Dagger”) plan, a coup plot believed to have been devised to kill various authorities—including President Lula and Justice Moraes.
Discontent
In one of the voice messages collected by investigators, the officer tells a lawyer identified as Luciano that the former was prepared to act to stop Lula from being sworn-in. In the conversation, Soares seems unhappy with the Armed Forces’ decision not to the coup.
“The generals sold out to the PT [Lula’s Workers’ Party] at the last minute, just when we were gonna take over everything, you know what I mean, man? We were hard at it, Lu. We were gonna take a whole bunch of people down, man, kill a whole bunch of people,” he says in the recording.
In another conversation, the policeman says he was part of “a special operations team” to protect Bolsonaro and was only waiting for a signal to act.
“We were on a special operations team ready to defend the president, armed with ample firepower to take down whoever came our way—you know what I mean, man? We were ready. But then the president… All we were waiting for was the president’s go-ahead, a stroke of the pen, before we could take action,” he adds.
Arresting Justice Moraes
In another conversation, the police officer says he was prepared to arrest Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
“We were already prepared for that—to go and arrest Alexandre Moraes. I was going to be on the team,” he states.
Soares also says that the justice should have “his head cut off” for having, early in Bolsonaro’s term, prevented the appointment of Alexandre Ramagem as director of the Federal Police. Ramagem now stands trial over the coup plot.
“Alexandre de Moraes really should have had his head cut off when he prevented the president [from] appointing a director for the Federal Police, right? I mean Ramagem. His head should have been cut off right there. You know what I mean?”
Disappointed in Bolsonaro
The conversations also show that the federal agent was disappointed because Bolsonaro traveled to the US at the end of his term and the coup did not materialize. “It was all set,” he says, but then “everything was ditched.”
“So I’m left in deep shit because the fucking president’s gonna back down,” he adds.
Trial
Next Tuesday (May 20), the first of the Supreme Court will decide whether Wlir Matos and 11 military personnel will also face trial in the case. They are part of group three of the charges filed by Brazil’s prosecutor-general on the attempted coup.
The individuals in this group are accused of planning “tactical actions” to carry out the coup plot.
