Brazilian officers planned to kill Lula

Nov. 20, 2024

Brazilian police detained five people — four military officers and one police — yesterday. Authorities accused them of plotting to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, in 2022, in an effort to prevent Lula and Alckmin from taking office. (See yesterday’s briefs.)

Retired Brigadier General Mario Fernandes, who had served as a deputy minister in then President Jair Bolsonaro's cabinet, was one of the detained. Fernandes was identified as the main plotter, he was found in possession of a plot outline that had been printed at the presidential palace. (Reuters)

“The planning drawn up by those under investigation detailed the human and military resources required to carry out the actions,” the police said in a statement. (New York Times)

The plot was hatched in a meeting at the house of Bolsonaro’s defeated running mate, retired general and former defense minister Walter Braga Netto, according to the supreme court’s document granting arrest warrants. The group allegedly planned to institute a “crisis cabinet” following the coup, led by a retired army general and Braga Netto, reports the Financial Times.

The revelations represent the most serious to have come to light so far during the investigation into the attempted coups orchestrated by Bolsonaro supporters after the 2022 election results, reports the Guardian.

Moraes, who is leading the investigations into the attempted coup of 8 January last year, was also the main target of a bomber who killed himself while attempting to attack Brazil’s supreme court last week.

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U.S. recognizes González

The U.S. government recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the “president-elect” of the South American country, yesterday. (Associated Press)

The decision, communicated by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, marks an end to U.S. support for a negotiated solution to Venezuela’s contested July presidential election. Nicolás Maduro’s government claims he won the vote, but has failed to produce evidence. Tally sheets obtained by opposition electoral observers indicate a landslide win for González.

Efforts by Latin American leftist leaders, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro sought to mediate between both sides, and have demanded tally sheets as a prerequisite for recognizing results.

Petro said in an interview this week that he was initially in favor of Venezuela holding the elections, but that he later decided that the vote was not “free.”

“I think the elections were a mistake,” Petro said. His office did not immediately respond to a request for him to elaborate on the reasons for his change of heart.

The Biden adninistration had not until now referred to Gonzalez as president-elect — the situation draws comparisons with the 2019 recognition by the Trump administration of opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's interim president. (Reuters)

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil responded to Blinken's comment with personal attacks: "In the last days of his government, he should dedicate himself to reflecting on his failures, getting rid of imperial and colonial complexes and going to write the memoirs of how the Bolivarian Revolution made him bite the dust of defeat, just like his predecessors.”

More Venezuela-U.S.

• The incoming Trump administration’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is expected to take a hardline stance against Maduro, but a return to “maximum pressure” sanctions could increase migration and upset oil companies Trump has courted, reports the Washington Post.

Venezuela

• Provea general coordinator Óscar Murillo was subpoenaed by Venezuelan authorities, “under a vague and spurious alleged investigation tied to the Law Against Hate for Peaceful Coexistence and Tolerance. This subpoena is part of an alarming pattern of state repression aimed at silencing those who advocate for fundamental rights and freedoms,” denounced WOLA.

Haiti

• Police and civilians killed 28 alleged gang members in Port-au-Prince’s Pétion-Ville neighborhood, reports the Miami Herald. They were battling an attack led by the Viv Ansanm group, whose leader, former police officer Jimmy Chérizier, had announced the plan in a video posted on social media, reports the Guardian.

• Médecins Sans Frontières suspended its operations in Port-au-Prince, after a violent attack on its staff and the alleged killing of two patients they were treating by Haitian police officers, last week. (BBC)

• “The suspension of operations, until further notice, means critical trauma care will now be nearly nonexistent in Port-au-Prince, with only one remaining hospital in the capital offering anything close to such care, leaving the country is an even more dire situation,” reports the Miami Herald.

Regional

• A new CSIS report analyzes arms trafficking patterns in Latin America and the Caribbean, which fuel powerful and deeply entrenched transnational criminal organizations trafficking drugs and other illegal commodities, and risk regional governments’ very sovereignty. The report outlines a strategic framework with recommendations for the United States, Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean to address the proliferation of illegal firearms and mitigate their destabilizing effects.

Brazil

• Next year’s COP30 will be held in Belem, Brazil, a heavily symbolic location in the Amazon. “But when tens of thousands of participants arrive in the host city of Belem next year, they won’t find idyllic images of rainforest, like lush vegetation and clean rivers. In Belem, impoverished, crime-ridden and filled with inequalities, most of the 2.5 million residents live in slums. What’s more, only 2% of the city’s sewage gets treated, imposing a heavy toll on its 14 river basins,” reports the Associated Press.

• Today Brazil celebrates Black Consciousness Day as national holiday for first time, reports the Guardian.

Regional Relations

• Argentine President Javier Milei held a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. They agreed to deepen cooperation and commercial ties, an about face from his campaign promise not to do business with a country he perceives as an ideological enemy. (El País)

• The meeting, along with Argentina’s acuquiecense with the final G20 declaration, show a more pragmatic side of Milei’s diplomatic approach, notes the Associated Press. Recently Milei has withdrawn Argentine negotiators from the U.N. climate summit, casting the only “no” votes on two U.N. resolutions, one supporting Indigenous rights and another advocating for an end to violence against women, and threw several wrenches into negotiations at the G20 summit.

Argentina

• Two socialist party lawmakers in Argentina denounced the leaders of a new armed faction of supporters of Milei. (Página 12, see yesterday’s briefs.)

El Salvador

• A Salvadoran court ruled to bring former president Alfredo Cristiani and nine retired military officials to trial for their alleged roles in the prominent murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter during the country’s civil war 35 years ago, reports the Guardian.