Bolsonaro: ‘You can’t stage a coup with a reserve general and half a dozen officers’

Former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) stated this Monday, 25th, that he never discussed the possibility of carrying out a coup d’état to prevent the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), but that he studied “all the possible measures within the four lines”.

The former palatian held a press conference this afternoon, when he returned to Brasília to meet with his lawyers to discuss the next steps after his indictment by the Federal Police (PF) for a coup d’état to stay in power. It was the first time he spoke since the incident.

“It’s like Temer said today. Temer said something obvious: a coup d’état must have the participation of all the Armed Forces, otherwise it is not a coup d’état. Nobody carries out a coup d’état on a Sunday, in Brasília, with people who were there with Bibles under their arms and the Brazilian flag in their hands, not even using slingshots and marbles, much less lipstick. There was no commander. (…) Let’s get this out of our heads. No one is going to stage a coup with a retired general and half a dozen officers. On my part, there was never any discussion of a coup,” said the former president.

Bolsonaro continued: “If someone came to talk to me about a coup, I would say: ‘Okay, okay, what about the after day? How does the world look before us? Now all possible measures within the four lines, within the Constitution, I studied”, he stated.

The former president stated that the word coup “was never” in his dictionary. “I don’t and would never do anything outside the four lines.” For him, “it is possible to solve Brazil’s problems within the Constitution”.

In the document sent to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) last Thursday, 21st, the PF indicted Bolsonaro and 36 other people – including generals Augusto Heleno (former head of the GSI), Braga Netto (former Minister of Defense and Bolsonaro’s vice-president on the defeated ticket in 2022), Paulo Sérgio Nogueira (former commander of the Army) and Estevam Cals Theophilo Gaspar de Oliveira (former head of the Army Land Operations Command), the former commander of the Navy, Admiral Almir Garnier Santos, the president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto, his former aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid and the former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres – for the crimes of violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, coup d’état and criminal organization. Combined, the sentences reach 28 years in prison.

The PF names Bolsonaro as the “leader” of the criminal organization, which aimed to keep him in power.

The same report points out that Bolsonaro knew about the plan to kill President Lula, the vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), and Moraes, in 2022. In addition to cell phone messages, videos, recordings, testimonials from lieutenant colonel Cid’s plea bargain, , there is a draft of a coup decree, which, according to the PF, was written and adjusted by Bolsonaro.