Bolsonaro to face charges for January coup attempt

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP):

A Brazilian congressional panel on Wednesday accused former President Jair Bolsonaro of instigating the country's January 8 riots and recommended that he be charged with attempting to stage a coup.

An inquiry panel of senators and representatives mostly allied with the current leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — who narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in last fall's election — voted 20-11 to adopt the damning report drafted by Senator Eliziane Gama.

The move was largely symbolic for Bolsonaro because it amounts to a recommendation for police and prosecutors to investigate, and federal law-enforcement officials separately have already been investigating his possible role in inciting the January 8 uprising.

Bolsonaro has denied involvement in the rioting, which took place more than a week after the right-wing leader had quietly left the country to stay in Florida, while refusing to attend Lula's inauguration.

"It's completely biased," Bolsonaro said on Wednesday of the inquiry, in comments to reporters. "It's an absurdity."

One week after Lula took office, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace, refusing to accept his election defeat. They bypassed security barricades, climbed on roofs, smashed windows, and invaded the public buildings.

Many observers at the time speculated that the riot was a coordinated effort to oust Lula from office, and could not have occurred without the complicity of some of the military and police. Gama's report jibed with those claims, and went a step further in saying they were orchestrated by Bolsonaro.

The report recommends that Bolsonaro be charged on a total of four counts, including attempting to overthrow a legitimately constituted government and attempting to overthrow democratic rule. It also includes a slew of other charges against dozens of Bolsonaro allies, including former ministers, top military brass and police officers.

Those include General Braga Netto, who served as Bolsonaro's defence minister and then was his running mate; Anderson Torres, ex-justice minister and secretary of public security in Brasilia; former institutional security minister General Augusto Heleno; former Chief of Staff General Luiz Eduardo Ramos; and the head of Brazil's defence, navy and armed forces.

Military and police forces are blamed for not getting rid of illegal encampments in several Brazilian cities, where protesters spent several weeks demanding a military intervention, and for their leniency towards protesters on January 8.

"I don't remember in Brazilian history a (congressional inquiry) that included such a large number of high-ranking officers," said Eduardo Heleno, who teaches civil-military relations at the Federal Fluminense University. Heleno said the report's efforts to highlight the military's alleged role in the riots, even if passive, marked a stark contrast with the 1979 Amnesty Law, which turned a blind eye to human-rights violations during the dictatorship.

"Without fear. This is how we end this (inquiry), because courage is the raw material of civilization. No amnesty, so that it never happens again and so that we never forget what happened," Senator Randolfe Rodrigues said on Wednesday before casting his vote backing the report.