Bolsonaro accused of attempting coup
Nov. 22, 2024
Brazil’s federal police accused former President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 other people of attempting a coup after his defeat in the 2022 elections. The allegations the culmination of a broad, two-year investigation into the events that preceded the riots in Brasília on Jan. 8, 2023, when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters invaded government buildings, destroyed public property and sought to push the armed forces to intervene against the newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. (Financial Times)
The charges are violent abolition of the democratic state of law, coup d’état and criminal organization.
The sealed findings, a 700-page report, were delivered yesterday to Brazil’s Supreme Court. The country’s prosecutor-general will decide whether to formally charge Bolsonaro or dismiss the investigation.
Dozens of former and current Bolsonaro aides also were indicted, including Gen. Walter Braga Netto, who was his running mate in the 2022 campaign; former Army commander Gen. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira; Valdemar Costa Neto, the chairman of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party; Bolsonaro’s former spy chief, the far-right congressman Alexandre Ramagem; Filipe Martins, one of Bolsonaro’s top foreign policy advisers; and his veteran former adviser, Gen. Augusto Heleno.
Gen Mario Fernandes, one of the five people arrested earlier this week over the alleged “Green and Yellow Dagger” plan to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022 and avoid his taking office, was also among the people named by federal police yesterday, reports the Guardian. Like the others, he was formally accused of being part of a criminal coup attempt. “We are at war,” Fernandes allegedly said in one message discovered by police investigators.
Bolsonaro’s allies in Congress have been pushing a broad amnesty bill for individuals who stormed public buildings in Brasilia, in a riot aimed at preventing Lula from taking power in January 2023. The pardon could hypothetically extend to Bolsonaro, but will be politically challenging given the nature of the revelations this week, according to the Associated Press.
The police have already recommended criminal charges against Bolsonaro in two separate cases: an effort to falsify his Covid-19 vaccination records and a plot to embezzle jewelry that he received as gifts from foreign leaders while in office — but federal prosecutors haven’t decided whether to pursue charges in those cases yet, reports the New York Times.
The Associated Press looks at a few of the biggest investigations incriminating Bolsonaro — including also pandemic sabotage and the so-called “hate cabinet,” a group operating inside Bolsonaro’s presidential palace that allegedly produced social media content aimed at undermining the rule of law — all of which could land him in jail or under house arrest.
Uruguay
Uruguayans vote in closely fought run-off elections on Sunday — Reuters.
Mexico
U.S. authorities detained Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación leader Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez, aka “El Guacho,” who had faked his own death and was living under an assumed identity in California, reports El País.
His father-in-law, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes or “El Mencho,” told associates he killed Gutierrez Ochoa for lying, helping the man escape to the U.S. to be with “El Mencho’s” daughter, according to the U.S. Justice Department. (Associated Press)
Mexico's lower chamber of Congress approved a measure to abolish most of the autonomous bodies that regulate some economic sectors and ensure government transparency, reports Reuters.
Migration
U.S. plans to accelerate deportations, curb immigration, and tax remittances may restrict a vital flow of capital and source of growth in Latin America, reports Americas Quarterly.
Regional Relations
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told a press conference that she expects to present U.S. president-elect Donald Trump with a proposal that will match his goal of reducing migration while stressing her support for migrants and their human rights, reports Reuters.
Though Sheinbaum is balancing diplomatically, she has pushed back against Trump’s anti-migrant discourse — emphasizing in a speech this week the economic contributions of migrants both to Mexico and the U.S., reports El País.
She sought to calm fears raised by Trump’s threat of “mass deportations,” saying that if that were to occur, Mexico has a plan to receive Mexicans returned to their home country, reports El País.
“We don’t agree that migrants be treated as criminals,” Sheinbaum told reporters yesterday at her regular morning news conference, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Sheinbaum acknowledged that Canada is concerned about reports of a Chinese company’s plan to build an auto plant in Mexico, but she said it does not currently exist, reports the Associated Press.
India is interested in buying up to two million barrels of crude from Guyana — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday during a visit to Guyana that his government views the South American country as key to its energy security, reports the Associated Press.
Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic authorities arrested a colonel and nine officers accused of stealing weapons and ammunition from the police department’s armory and illegally selling them to people including criminals in neighboring Haiti, reports the Associated Press.
Haiti
U.S. aviation authorities are allowing U.S. flights to resume to six airports in northern Haiti. (Reuters)
Colombia
U.S. officials have confirmed that the U.S. government helped pay for the acquisition of Pegasus to use in Colombia — $11 million in cash. But, “the U.S.’ apparent role in Colombia’s use of Pegasus remains murky,” reports DropSite News. “Many questions remain about the Pegasus deal, including why the U.S. brokered the Pegasus acquisition, why it was paid for in cash, which U.S. and Colombian agencies used it, and the specific operations in which the technology was used.”
A proposal to increase revenue transfers from Colombia’s national government to local authorities is popular, but “risks placing the nation’s fiscal accounts on an unsustainable path,” reports Americas Quarterly.
Argentina
Buenos Aires city’s public prosecutor’s office is using ChatGPT to predict rulings for some public employment cases related to salary demands — significantly reducing the time it takes to draft a sentence, but prompting concerns within the judiciary and among independent legal experts about possible biases, the treatment of personal data, and the emergence of hallucinations, writes Victoria Mendizabal in Rest of World.
Argentina’s Milei administration hopes to destroy the iconic Ministry of Public Works building in Buenos Aires — it’s a perenial debate, which in this case “is part of a cultural battle being undertaken by the Milei administration, which is seeking to strip out tributes and references to Peronist leaders at government buildings,” reports the Buenos Aires Times.