The mobile phone of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, direct adviser to former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), contained messages and documents revealing some sort of conspiracy to stage a coup in Brazil, Veja magazine revealed on Friday.
The documents were cited in a 66-page report, to which the magazine had access, by Federal Police Intelligence on the contents of the army officer’s cell phone.
Mauro Cid was arrested in early May on suspicion of participating in a scheme that apparently falsified COVID-19 vaccination certificates when his cell phone was seized by court order.
According to Veja magazine, one of the documents found on Cid’s cell phone suggests that among those closest to Bolsonaro were military personnel and supporters who conspired to try to get the results of last October’s presidential election, in which President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won with 51% of the vote.
The alleged plan aimed to fire the judges of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) and place the country under military rule.
According to the magazine, the plan is based on “a controversial proposition” according to which the military could be “called upon to mediate in a conflict between powers” in the country, the executive, judiciary and legislature.
According to the plan, this mediation would be called because Bolsonaro’s defeat would have been caused by “unconstitutional decisions made during the election campaign by the magistrates of the Court”, which at the time also constituted the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).
“It is clear that the facts described can demonstrate not only abuses by the judiciary, but also abuses by the largest Brazilian media conglomerates, in a way that would directly affect the voter and the outcome of the vote. The election in favor of a particular candidate,” reads one of the documents found on Cid’s cell phone.
Veja also revealed that another text cited the possibility of declaring martial law, a measure only provided for in the Brazilian constitution for extreme situations.
In addition to the documents, the report includes exchanges of messages between Cid and other active-duty soldiers, such as Colonel Jean Lawand Junior, then deputy army chief of staff, who, according to the magazine, apparently supported the coup attempt.
Lawand Júnior reportedly told Mauro Cid to urge Bolsonaro to give the order, as he would have the support of the troops. In response, Mauro Cid argued that Bolsonaro was not confident that he would be obeyed by the armed forces’ high command.
Lawand was deputy chief of staff of the army. During the administration of Lula da Silva, he was transferred to Washington as a representative of the Brazilian army. The military contacted about this conversation, claiming not to remember its contents.
The revelation of the content of the messages comes almost half a year after the failed coup attempt in Brasília on January 8, when Bolsonaro supporters destroyed the headquarters of the three powers in Brasília in an attempt to overthrow the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. cast. out of power. .
As a result of the attempted coup, the Brazilian authorities arrested about 2,000 people, but currently fewer than 300 remain in prison and the rest await trial at liberty, albeit with different precautions.
Source: DN
