Brazil: two alleged coup plotters raided | They blame a singer and a deputy sympathizing with Bolsonaro

Brazilian federal police raided the singer’s residences and offices on Friday Sergio reis and the deputy Paula’s Ottoni, both supporters of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, for violent and threatening acts against democracy and incitement to a coup. The raids are part of a court case in which Brazilian president accused of alleged dissemination of fake news and alleged attack on democracy.

For his part this Friday Bolsonaro submitted letter to Congress calling for the impeachment of Alexander de Moraes, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) judge who is investigating him and who ordered the roundups of his two supporters.

“Violent and threatening acts”

Reis and de Paula are suspected of “having committed the crime of inciting the population to commit violent and threatening acts against democracy, the rule of law and its institutions, as well as against members of power”, reported on Federal Police by a note published in the local media.

According to the note, this instigation took place through social networks where the defendants promoted “the practice of violent and threatening acts against democracy, the rule of law and its institutions, as well as against members of government“.

Popular singer and agricultural producer Reis promotes invasion of the Senate and a national truck stop, push for the removal of the eleven judges of the Federal Supreme Court.

Paula’s deputy, of the right-wing Christian Social Party, asked the population to mobilize against the judges on September 7 to the events convened this Thursday by President Bolsonaro.

According to the first information, the agents of the Federal Police searched in the morning of this Friday the deputy office in Brasilia and its properties in Rio de Janeiro, in addition to requisitioning the address of Reis in the state of San Pablo.

Dismissal procedure

In turn, Bolsonaro formally requested this Friday from the Senate the opening of dismissal proceedings against the STF judge (supreme court) Alexandre de Moraes, who is investigating a case of spreading false news and attacks on democracy.

This act of the far-right leader is part of the institutional standoff with justice, who, in recent weeks, has bolstered the seat of the leader and his allies for his campaign to discredit the Supreme Court and electoral authorities.

An official from the Planalto Presidential Palace was responsible for presenting the petition to the Upper House, signed by Bolsonaro and the State Attorney General, Bruno Bianco, to initiate an impeachment lawsuit against De Moraes.

Last weekend, the president announced that he would officially call for an “impeachment” against De Moraes and Luis Roberto Barroso, another of the eleven judges of the Supreme Court and current president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), although it ultimately gave up on including the latter.

De Moraes is the investigating judge in an investigation in which Bolsonaro appears as a suspect and tries to find out the origin and funding of a network of “far-right digital militias” responsible for disseminating false content and attacks against democracy via the Internet.

The judicial inquiry

That same Friday, the authorized magistrate ordered to search the homes of a dozen people, including the deputy Otoni de Paula and the far-right singer Sergio Reis, accused of “conspiracy” against the institutions. In your writing, Bolsonaro alleged that De Moraes was acting in an “inquisitorial”, “partial” and “partisan” manner, being “both investigator, accuser and judge”..

The fact that a head of state calls for the dismissal of a Supreme Court judge has a strong symbolism, although he did not prosper in Parliament, for the head of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, has already announced that now is not the perfect time to discuss the issue amid the severe health and economic crisis.

Tensions

Tensions between Bolsonaro and the Supreme Court and Congress began in the middle of last year, when the two powers allowed governors and mayors to adopt isolation measures against the coronavirus pandemic, which the president is censoring.

This year, the institutional conflict worsened by the aggressive campaign to discredit the president against the electronic voting system that has operated in the country since 1996, which, in his opinion, encourages “fraud”, although he admits to having no evidence in this regard.

With its plummeting popularity ratings and the latest polls predicting their defeat in the 2022 election, Bolsonaro urged his supporters to take to the streets the next September 7, on the occasion of the celebration of the independence of Brazil, for protest against the Supreme Court and electoral justice.