A year after the attempted assault on state powers, many Brazilians still resist believing that such an event could occur in their country. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva continues to point to his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, as responsible for the failed coup against him. The retired former captain contends that the whole episode is a fabrication of the left. The images from that day, however, carry substantial weight in challenging that claim. Throughout 2022, the justice system moved decisively, with about 1,390 people accused of taking part in the conspiracy and roughly thirty individuals sentenced to as much as 17 years in prison. Sixty-six people remain in preventive detention. Bolsonaro is under investigation as a possible instigator and intellectual author of the rebellion, alongside former Attorney General Anderson Torres. This was a direct assault on Brazil’s security apparatus during the far-right assault on the Planalto Palace, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. He had a history of coup rhetoric at home, and is accused of creating conditions that would allow radical Bolsonarism to advance.
Sunday’s acts of vandalism marked a shift from rhetoric to action. After Bolsonaro’s defeat in the October 2022 elections, calls to forcibly seize symbolic buildings of democratic legitimacy spread among ultra-supporters gathered in front of military barracks.
A few hours before the eighth January commemoration, chilling details emerged. Alexandre de Moraes, one of the eleven justices of the Federal Supreme Court, told Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo newspaper that there was a plan to execute him in the Plaza de los Tres Poderes. De Moraes has long been a focal point of anger for the far right and for Bolsonaro, who oversaw investigations into the use of misinformation during his government. The plan reportedly included Army Special Forces arresting him on Sunday and moving him to Goiania, another phase proposing an arrest on the road, a potential killing, and, in a final stage, hanging him. The aim, as described, was to end democracy, trigger a military coup, and erase political rights. De Moraes stressed that a probe was opened into whether members of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency followed the same path.
Lula’s certainty
The Workers’ Party leader did not delay in addressing the political and legal ramifications. He asserted that someone was directly responsible for planning the entire episode and criticized Bolsonaro for hiding and abandoning Brazil. Bolsonaro, who left for the United States shortly before leaving office, was accused of not accepting the electoral victory and of attempting to undermine electoral justice and the institutions themselves. Lula stated that Bolsonaro planned the action, showed cowardice, and left followers to carry out what was done.
The full scope of the coup remains to be clarified. See magazine Veja published an audio recording in which Federal District security officials dismissed the seriousness of the actions and called them a waste of police effort. Investigators continue to seek funding sources, the organizers of the camps, and those who financed the operation, aiming for justice that would deter any future attempts to challenge the democratic process. A minister emphasized the need to complete the investigations without haste, but with resolve to bring all responsible to account.
The defense minister called for accelerated inquiries into coup actions, arguing that the aim was to clear the cloud of mistrust surrounding the armed forces. He denied that the military wanted a coup but admitted that some insiders did. He stressed a desire to punish the guilty while protecting the innocent, and Lula has sought to rebuild ties with the military leadership over the past year.
January 8 should be remembered by its name: an attempted coup, urged a columnist for O Globo. Political analyst Miriam Leitao highlighted the attendance of armed forces leaders at parliament as an important signal. The stance indicated that the military leadership was seeking a measured, institutional response rather than an overt political maneuver. There was room in Brazil’s political landscape for both the right and the left, but no space for conspiracies against democracy, according to Leitao.
Tarcisio Freitas, a former minister and current governor of Sao Paulo, aligned with party skeptics by declining to attend the parliamentary gathering. He suggested political calculations were at play and would not necessarily contribute to Lula’s public image. Bolsonarist factions continued to push for designating Monday’s events as “Patriots’ Day” on social media, while authorities prepared for only minor incidents.
Bolsonaro condemned the destruction of public buildings on January 8 by several thousand of his most ardent supporters, blaming the government for what happened. He asserted that the incident was a leftist trap and lamented the lack of progress in the investigation. In his view, the attack on Brazil’s centers of power did not reflect the actions of mainstream conservatives, insisting that his followers would never endorse such violence.