Brazil arrests four people over alleged coup attempt in Bolsonaro riots by Health & Fitness Journal

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©Health & Fitness Journal. Federal prison officers line up outside Federal Police Headquarters during an operation by Federal Police and Brasilia Civil Police agents to serve arrest and seizure warrants issued by the Supreme Federal Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Bra 2/5

By Gabriel Araujo and Ricardo Brito

BRASILIA (Health & Fitness Journal) – Brazilian police said they arrested at least four people and conducted nationwide raids on Thursday to investigate an alleged coup attempt during unrest by supporters of defeated far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazilian authorities, led by the Supreme Court, are cracking down on a small but committed minority of Bolsonaro supporters who refuse to recognize leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s electoral victory and are calling for a military coup.

Bolsonaro, still undefeated, has made unsubstantiated claims that Brazil’s electoral system lacks credibility, which some of his hardcore base believe.

Thursday’s operation came just days before Lula’s inauguration on Sunday, and less than a week after Brasilia police said they foiled a bomb plot directed by suspected Bolsonaro supporters.

The raids stemmed from a riot on December 12, the day Lula’s victory was certified, when election deniers camped outside army headquarters in Brasilia attacked federal police headquarters and set fire to cars and buses after a pro- Bolsonaro leader arrested.

Federal police said Thursday they are serving 32 search and arrest warrants in eight states by Supreme Court orders.

The alleged offenses are “qualified criminal damage, arson, criminal association, violent overriding of the rule of law and coup d’état, the maximum penalties of which are 34 years in prison,” it said in a statement.

Cleo Mazzotti, head of the federal police’s organized crime branch, said four people had been arrested by mid-morning and more arrests were expected as police searched for seven other suspects.

Two arrest warrants had been served in the northwestern state of Rondonia, one in Rio de Janeiro and one in Brasilia, Mazzotti said at a press conference.

Announcing his new ministers, Lula urged people not to worry about the “noise” after the election.

“Those who lost the elections should remain calm, and the winners have the right to throw a big, popular party,” he said.

New justice minister Flavio Dino hailed the operation, saying it aims to uphold the rule of law by “protecting life and property”.

“Political reasons do not justify arson, attacks on the federal police headquarters, devastation, bombs. Freedom of expression does not apply to terrorism,” Dino wrote on Twitter.

On Wednesday, Health & Fitness Journal reported that the riots in Brasilia followed days of growing tensions in the camp of electoral deniers after the December 6 arrest of Milton Baldin, a Bolsonarista who had urged registered gun owners to come to the capital to protest Lula’s voting card to protest .

Less than two weeks after the riots, police found a bomb in the capital. George Washington Sousa, a Bolsonaro supporter with ties to the army camp, admitted making the device to provoke the military into intervention.

Mazzotti said almost all of the people targeted in Thursday’s raids visited the pro-Bolsonaro camp.

Amid growing fears over security risks surrounding Lula’s Jan. 1 inauguration in the capital, the Supreme Court on Wednesday banned registered gun owners from carrying firearms in the federal district until after he took office.