Rio de Janeiro.- The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said Thursday night that he was “certain” that Jair Bolsonaro was involved in the assault on government buildings carried out by his supporters on January 8, and that he was looking to carry out a “coup”. .
“Today I am aware and I will say it loud and clear: that citizen prepared the coup,” Lula said in an interview with the RedeTV station. “I am certain that Bolsonaro was an active participant in that and is still trying to participate.”
His statements come the same day that a senator confessed to the media in December having participated in an alleged meeting with Bolsonaro and a former deputy in which a plan was hatched to prevent the assumption of Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro tried to persuade him to join a conspiracy to overturn the far-right leader’s electoral defeat, asking him to try to get Moraes to make compromising comments in a recorded conversation that could lead to the judge’s arrest.
The 77-year-old leftist won the election by a narrow margin, 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent. “We defeated Bolsonaro, but it is still necessary to defeat Bolsonaro,” Lula asserted in another part of the interview.
After reiterating in the campaign that he did not plan to contest re-election in 2026, this Thursday he admitted that he does not completely rule it out. “Today, I would say no, but when the time comes, if the situation is delicate and I am in good health, I could only be a candidate in perfect health. At 81 years of age, but with the energy of 40 and the desire of 30 “.
Raids continue in Brazil
The Brazilian federal Police carried out new raids this Friday as part of an investigation into the insurrection of January 8, when supporters of Bolsonaro broke into government buildings in Brasilia.
Police said in a statement that it was serving three preventive arrest warrants and 14 search and seizure warrants ordered by the Supreme Court in five states and the federal district, where Brasilia is located.
The new efforts represent the fourth phase of an operation launched last month to identify those who participated in, financed or fomented the riots, in which a mob invaded and looted Congress, the Presidential Palace and the Supreme Court.
The police did not reveal the names of the people targeted by the raids, but stressed that they are being investigated for the crimes of “violent abolition of the rule of law, coup d’état, qualified damages, criminal association, incitement, destruction and deterioration of property specially protected”.
