Brasilia, Oct 17 (EFE).- A parliamentary commission on Tuesday accused former president Jair Bolsonaro of encouraging the January 8 coup attempt that stormed the headquarters of the three branches of government in Brasilia.
The report, presented by Senator Eliziane Gama, rapporteur of the parliamentary group, accuses Bolsonaro of being the “intellectual and moral mentor” of the coup movement and calls for him to be charged with the crimes of illegal association, political violence, forcible suspension of the rule of law and coup d’état.
It also proposes that 55 other people be charged, including five former ministers of the government presided by the extreme right-wing leader (2019-2022), former commanders of the navy and army and a number of military personnel, as well as Congresswoman Carla Zambelli, a recognized voice of bolsonarismo.
Gama’s report will be voted on by the commission, which is dominated by the ruling party, in a meeting scheduled for Wednesday. If approved, it will be sent to the Attorney General’s Office and the courts.
Bolsonarismo, which has rejected the report’s conclusions, has already announced that it will present a parallel document accusing the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of “omissions” in the area of security that “facilitated” the vandals’ actions.
Tuesday’s report is more than 1,100 pages long and provides a detailed account of what happened in Brazil after Oct. 30 2022, when Lula won the presidential elections against Bolsonaro.
It mentions the road blockades carried out by truck drivers, the encampments in front of the army barracks to demand military intervention, the frustrated raid of Brasilia and the discussions within Bolsorano’s government to prevent Lula’s inauguration, embodied in a draft of a “coup decree” found by the police.
The report also links that movement to the “widespread dissemination of lies” and “hate speeches” on social networks.
According to Gama, all of this leads to the conclusion that the January 8 attack was only the corollary of a coup plot that began to take shape “before” Lula was proclaimed the winner of the October elections and that “from that moment on” gained strength to “prevent alleged communism from taking over the country.”
The commission’s final report found that Bolsonaro “never showed sympathy for democratic principles” and “from the first day of government attacked the institutions of the state,” Gama said when presenting the text.
However, the work of the parliamentary commission is lagging behind the judicial investigation, which has received complaints against 1,390 defendants, six of whom have already been sentenced to up to 17 years in prison.
The judicial investigation has not been completed and is trying to identify those who financed the movement and its “intellectual authors”, among whom former President Jair Bolsonaro himself is a suspect. EFE
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