Brazil arrests soldiers over alleged 2022 Lula assassination plot
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attending a G-20 Leaders' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Nov 19.
PHOTO: AFP
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BRASILIA - Brazilian police said they arrested four soldiers on Nov 19 over an alleged plot to assassinate then president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a 2022 “coup”.
The four “were arrested in Rio, where they were participating in the security operation for the G-20 leaders’ meeting,” a federal police source told AFP, adding that a police officer was also taken into custody.
The army, in a statement, denied that information, saying in a statement: “These soldiers were not part of the operation of maintaining order at the G-20 summit.”
A statement by Brazil’s federal police made no link to the Group of 20.
It said the suspects were “mostly soldiers with special forces training” who were arrested in an operation to “dismantle a criminal organisation responsible for planning a coup d’etat to prevent the government legitimately elected in 2022 elections taking office.”
US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are among leaders in Rio for the annual get-together
Security is tight for the event, with troops in armoured vehicles lining the streets of the usually laid-back seaside city.
The Nov 19 arrests come under a week after a failed bomb attack on the Supreme Court
The alleged plot against Mr Lula was to have been carried out on Dec 15, 2022 - just weeks before the veteran leftist returned to office at the start of 2023 - and involved “the murder of the candidates to the presidency and vice presidency,” the statement said.
The suspected coup-plotters, who also allegedly planned to assassinate a Supreme Court justice, intended afterwards to set up a “crisis Cabinet” with themselves in it, the police added.
Brazilian media said the judge they plotted to kill was Alexandre de Moraes, a powerful justice who has drawn the ire of the right for his investigations into the far-right and for shutting down the social network X for 40 days in a fight with its owner Elon Musk over disinformation.
‘Green-and-yellow dagger’
The suspects possessed “advanced military operational” know-how and had codenamed their plot “Green and Yellow Dagger,” according to the federal police. That was an apparent reference to colours on the Brazilian flag.
They face potential charges of violently trying to overthrow the government, coup-plotting and being part of a criminal organisation, the statement added.
In October 2022, Mr Lula defeated far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who had served a single term in office, to regain power after a decade’s absence.
Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia on Jan 8, 2023, in an uprising reminiscent of the 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.
Several investigations have been opened into the Brasilia riots, as well as other alleged plots to prevent Mr Lula taking office.
The man who carried out a failed bomb attack on the Supreme Court last week, killing himself in the process, is also suspected of involvement in the 2023 unrest. AFP
