At least fifteen Brazilian law enforcement officers, including military police, Armed Forces soldiers and even a firefighter, were allegedly involved in some way in the coup acts of January 8 in Brasilia, when a mob of Jair Bolsonaro supporters attacked the headquarters of the three branches of government.
The latest to be arrested this Monday was Roberto Henrique de Souza Júnior, of the Rio de Janeiro Fire Brigade, who in 2018 tried unsuccessfully to be elected federal deputy for Patriotas, one of the parties related to the most extreme Bolsonarism.
In this list there are both active and reserve agents and according to the newspaper ‘O Globo’, among these fifteen, in addition to the aforementioned firefighter, there are nine military policemen, three Army soldiers, a Navy officer and a former Air Force corporal, who left office in mid-2022 after eight years of service.
Many of them have been identified thanks to social networks, which they used profusely during the violent events that took place on January 8 on the Esplanade of the Ministries. One of them was the sergeant of the Brasilia Military Police, Ednaldo Teixeira Magalhães, who recorded what happened and celebrated that «things were getting dangerous».
«We gain nothing by staying on the Internet, let’s go to the streets all over the country,» he posted on his Instagram account on the day Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the elections, encouraging personnel to participate in the road blockades that were set up after the results of those elections were known.
Some of these fifteen have already been released while being investigated for their participation in those events. Others, on the other hand, did not go to prison at all, such as Military Police sergeant Silvério Santos, who celebrated on social networks that Brasilia had «exploded».
As for the Army, there are those who even harshly criticized their comrades in arms for respecting the Constitution, such as reserve officer Adriano Camargo Testonio, who called those who stood firm against the assailants «a bunch of motherfucking generals».
Others like Ridauto Lúcio Fernandes are known for having held positions within the government of former President Bolsonaro, when he was director of Logistics in the Ministry of Health headed by General Eduardo Pazuello.
In addition to these fifteen, there are at least two others under investigation for alleged omission and connivance with the assailants when they were on duty, the former general commander of the Brasilia Military Police, Colonel Fábio Augusto Vieira, arrested by order of the Supreme Court judge, Alexandre de Moraes; and Colonel Paulo Jorge Fernandes da Hora, investigated for preventing the officers from acting.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
