Who is Léo Índio, Bolsonaro’s cousin denounced for attempted coup d’état

The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) denounced this Wednesday, 22nd, Leonardo Rodrigues de Jesus, known as Léo Índio, cousin of the eldest children of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), for attempting a coup d’état.

Léo was investigated in Operation Lesa Pátria, of the Federal Police (PF), for participating in the coup acts of January 8, 2023. According to the PGR, there is evidence that Léo “participated as an inciter and executor of anti-democratic acts” and “intentionally competed for the practice of criminal conduct” of the attack on the Three Powers.

The public servant describes himself on social media as “Bolsonaro’s nephew”, but Léo’s relationship with the former president is actually more distant: he is the son of a sister of Rogéria Nantes, Jair Bolsonaro’s first wife and mother of Flávio, Carlos and Eduardo.

During Jair Bolsonaro’s government, Léo Índio circulated with free access to the offices of the Palácio do Planalto, even without having a position in the Presidency. In the first 45 days of the Bolsonaro government alone, Léo Índio went to Planalto 58 times – a frequency greater than that of the president himself, who left the place on 16 occasions between January 1st and February 14th, 2019.

Léo Índio was born in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, and is 41 years old. He ran for district deputy in 2022 for the PL with the ballot box name “Léo Índio Bolsonaro”, but received 1,801 votes and was not elected. At the time, he declared that he had no assets.

In 2024, he ran for councilor in Cascavel, in the interior of Paraná, for the PP. As assets, he declared that he had R$5,000 in cash. Using “Léo Bolsonaro” as the name of the ballot box, he obtained 739 votes and, once again, was not elected.

Between November 2006 and January 2012, he was an employee in the office of Flávio Bolsonaro, then state deputy of Rio de Janeiro. He was the target of a breach of bank secrecy as part of the investigation that found possible “rachadinha” practices. The case was closed.

Between 2019 and 2022, he was appointed to positions in a Senate committee – first in the office of Chico Rodrigues (then at DEM, now at PSB) and, later, in the leadership of the PL. He left Chico Rodrigues’ office in August 2020, following a corruption scandal involving the senator.