Jair Bolsonaro buys ice cream and pizza on his presidential card

AFP

Brazil: Bolsonaro is the target of an investigation into rampages in Brasilia

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose relatives have been implicated, is now the direct target of justice for his role in the raids on national institutions in Brasilia. Office, a former head of state of the far-right, is in an investigation aimed at finding possible triggers for the January 8 violence in the Brazilian capital. Bolsonaro, who narrowly lost to left-wing candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in October’s presidential election, “undertook public incitement to commit crimes” by posting on social networks a video “challenging the order of the 2022 presidential elections”, prosecutors explained in a press release. The video was published two days after the invasion of the presidential headquarters, Congress and Supreme Court by thousands of Bolsonars, then deleted, prosecutors recalled. But it could, he argued, provide “links of evidence” justifying “a global investigation into acts committed before and after January 8, 2023” by Mr Bolsonaro. The former president “never had the slightest connection or participation with these movements,” his lawyer said in a statement sent to AFP, attributing the violence in Brasilia to “infiltrated” elements. Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since late December, was pinned down on Friday for lavish spending during his mandate, such as 20,000 euros cashed out at once at a modest restaurant in northern Brazil or 10,000 euros at a bakery the day after his son’s wedding. the president’s credits for his four years in office (2019-2022) published on the official website of the Lula government, which begins lifting the 100 years of secrecy imposed by his predecessor on thousands of official documents. – Draft decision – Opening of investigation targeting Bolsonaro follows other already related disclosures with the remake of the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, and which sheds light on the causes of former Secretary of Justice, Anderson Torres, whose house a draft decree was found that would have allowed the annulment of Lula’s election as president. The highly compromising documents disclosed late Thursday by the daily Folha de S. Paulo were discovered during a search of the former minister’s house, which is the subject of an arrest warrant on suspicion of “collusion” with the perpetrators of the violence in Brasilia. “We will wait for him to appear until Monday. Otherwise, we will launch the extradition request procedure next week,” Flavio Dino, Lula’s justice minister, who has been in office since January 1, announced Friday. to claim his innocence. He is in the United States and has promised to return to Brazil to turn himself in to authorities, without giving an exact date. The three-page document found at his home calls for the federal government to take over the High Electoral Court (TSE), which oversees the smooth running of the voting, “to ensure the preservation and restoration of transparency, and to approve the regularity of the electoral process for the 2022 presidential election”. An act considered unconstitutional by many. In practice, the aim was to overturn Lula’s election. , headed by a majority of members of the Ministry of Defense (8 of 17). The document is undated, but Jair Bolsonaro’s name is at the end, in the space reserved for his signature. – “Coup” – “While 33 million people were starving, they are preparing for a coup”, leftist senator Randolfe Rodrigues, leader of the Lula government’s parliamentary bloc in the upper house, tweeted on Friday. “This shows that what we saw on January 8 was not an isolated act. (The draft decision) is one link in a putschist chain”, Flavio Dino had stated on Thursday evening. Federal Police told AFP they could not comment on the ongoing investigation. Torres said late Thursday on Twitter that this draft was “probably in a pile of documents that should have been destroyed in time”, and claimed his disclosure was taken out of context. The former minister had served since January 2 as head of security for the Brasilia Federal District, but left on vacation shortly thereafter.rsr-lg/pt/ybl/fjb/roc/juf