Brasilia (EFE).- The coup attacks on January 8 against State institutions in Brazil were the result of a “chain of coincidences”, which included serious security failures, according to a report presented this Friday by the Government.
When presenting the report, the executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Ricardo Cappelli, stated that he believes in the existence of a “conspiracy”, but admitted that “it is not easy to prove” this hypothesis.
«In the best of hypotheses, direction and responsibility were lacking. But the set of coincidences can configure something much more serious,” Cappelli, who has been in charge of Brasilia’s security since after the attacks, told a press conference.
The report, which was delivered to the Supreme Court, tries to clarify the role of the security organs in relation to the attacks, perpetrated by thousands of radical Bolsonaristas against the headquarters of the Government, the Legislature and the Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro’s former minister, in the eye of the hurricane
In particular, the report points to the responsibility of the former Secretary of Security of Brasilia Anderson Torres, who was also Minister of Justice in the Government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) and has been arrested since January 14.
Cappelli affirmed that Torres “generated instability” in the security organs of Brasilia because, as soon as he took office on January 1, he fired several commanders and allowed others to go on vacation.
Torres himself traveled to the United States before the attacks, although he was officially going to take a vacation on January 9.
Two days before the attacks, Torres received an intelligence report exposing the existence of “a concrete threat” and anticipating the plans of the Bolsonaristas to invade the headquarters of the three powers, but a special security plan was not put in place. .
According to the documents of the Security bodies, it was planned to deploy 555 policemen in the center of Brasilia, a routine device, but the videos of the day of the attacks suggest that there were less than 150 agents, according to Cappelli.
To protect public buildings, a row of simple fences was installed, although security protocol advises putting up double fences on days of demonstrations, and their surveillance was in charge of cadets from the Police Academy.
The report also indicated that the police officers who were monitoring the demonstration seized blunt objects and masks, which “anticipated a violent action” by the Bolsonaristas, but the security device was not reinforced.
A very detailed organization
On the side of the radicals, Cappelli stressed, there was an “organized, professional action”, since several of them used radio communicators and coordinated to tear down the fences, before the invasion of the headquarters of the three powers.
According to the Security inspector in Brasilia, the conduct of the police deployed on the day of the attacks will also be investigated, since they were ignorant and some even consorted with the attackers.
Cappelli stressed that there has been an “escalation” of anti-democratic attacks since the victory of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the October 30 elections, which culminated in the January 8 invasions.
According to the report’s conclusions, these attacks were “planned” in the camp set up by far-rightists in front of the Army headquarters in Brasilia, where around 4,000 people gathered on the eve of the invasion.
Nearly 1,800 people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the attacks, although nearly half will respond to the Justice in freedom.
The Supreme Court has included Bolsonaro on the list of those investigated, to clarify whether he instigated his followers to carry out the attacks, which were intended to overthrow President Lula, who took power on January 1.