Former Air Force Chief says he warned Bolsonaro from lacking ballot box

Former Aeronautics Commander Carlos Almeida Baptista Junior stated in a statement to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Wednesday, 21, who reported to then President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) the lack of evidence that the electronic ballot boxes had flaws. He is one of the witnesses in the process in which Bolsonaro is accused of a coup attempt.

According to Baptista Junior, Colonel Marcelo Câmara, then Bolsonaro’s advisor, sought Colonel Wagner Oliveira da Silva, who composed the Electronic Voting System Surveillance Committee, to talk about findings about electronic ballot boxes.

The Board, instituted by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to expand the transparency and security of all stages of election, included the Armed Forces.

Baptista Junior stated that, after this episode, he directly asked the then Minister of Defense, Paulo Sergio Oliveira, to warn Bolsonaro that his assistant should not approach Silva to discuss ballot theses at the ballot box. At the time, he stated that behavior consisted of breaking the chain of command and that several theses created within the Presidency of the Republic about irregularities in the elections had already been rejected by the Armed Forces themselves.

Former Air Force commander Carlos Baptista Junior said in testimony he warned, in November 2022, then-President Jair Bolsonaro about failures in the report produced by the Vot Legal Institute (IVL), which pointed to fraud at the electronic ballot boxes. That document presented to the military at the meeting was used as the basis for the request of the annulment of the votes.

“I said: President, this report is very poorly written. It contains errors in identifying the ballot box,” he said in a statement to the STF, confirming what he had already told the Federal Police (PF) during investigations into the attempted coup.

“I commented (about the lack of fraud at the ballot box) after the second round, at a meeting we had on November 9, and then in several meetings with the Defense Minister and then, with more emphasis on the 14th, when he introduced me to the Voting Institute’s report,” he said.

After the warning, Bolsonaro called IVL president Carlos Rocha and placed him on the line with Baptista Junior, who explained the technical errors found in the report and reinforced the opinion that there was no failures in the ballot box that compromised the integrity of the election outcome.

Baptista Junior is a witness in the criminal action convened by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and defendants of defendants Jair Bolsonaro, Almir Garnier (former Navy Commander) and Paulo Sergio Oliveira.