Brazil's former defense minister Braga Netto is said to have played a central role in a coup attempt by ex-President Bolsonaro. Now he has been arrested. There are also serious allegations against Bolsonaro.
Brazilian police have arrested former Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto during an investigation into a suspected coup plot. The cabinet member of former President Jair Bolsonaro is said to be hindering the investigation in collecting evidence, Brazilian media report, citing the federal police. Braga Netto denies the allegations.
Federal police recommend charges
Braga Netto was formally charged in November, along with Bolsonaro and 35 other people, with plotting a coup to keep Bolsonaro in power after his October 2022 election defeat against current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Three more people were recently accused. The Attorney General's Office still has to decide whether to follow the Federal Police's recommendation and bring charges against Bolsonaro and the other suspects.
According to the investigation, Braga Netto is said to have been the driving force behind the planning of the coup and the one who provided support to the officers and commanders. He was arrested at his home in Rio de Janeiro.
Preliminary draft of planning a coup
In addition to Bolsonaro and Braga Netto, the former general and head of the Cabinet for Institutional Security under Bolsonaro, Augusto Heleno, and the former president of the Brazilian secret service, Alexandre Ramagem, are also said to have been involved in the plot. They are accused of attempting to violently abolish the democratic constitutional state, planning a coup and forming a criminal organization.
On January 8, 2023, supporters of the ex-military Bolsonaro, who did not want to recognize Lula's election victory, stormed Congress, the seat of government and the Supreme Court in Brasília and caused considerable damage.
