Sao Paulo, (EFE).- Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, investigated in the Supreme Court for “inciting” his followers to violently invade the headquarters of the three powers on January 8, assured this Monday that “it never” happened for his head to carry out a coup d’état.
“If I wanted to carry out a coup, I would have carried it out while I was president, but it never crossed our minds,” said the far-right leader in an interview with the Jovem Pan network from the United States, on the eve of his return to Brazil, scheduled for Thursday. .
The former president, in Orlando (Florida) since December 30, thus rejected criticism from the left that accuses him of being “problematic”, “not having an education”, “swearing” and being a “dictator for want to hit.”
The Supreme Court included the retired Army captain on the list of those investigated for the attempted coup perpetrated by thousands of his most radical supporters on January 8, in Brasilia.
That day, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed the headquarters of Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court, with the aim of forcing the fall of the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in the October 2022 elections.
In the course of the investigations, the authorities found a draft of a coup presidential decree at the home of Bolsonaro’s former Justice Minister, Anderson Torres, who is still detained today for his alleged “omission” in the episode as Security Secretary of Brasilia.
The text, not signed by Bolsonaro, would have allowed the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to intervene and annul the result of the elections.
On several occasions, Lula has publicly accused the former head of state of being behind everything and “preparing” a coup against him.
At another point in the interview, Bolsonaro confirmed that he will return to Brazil on Thursday and suggested that he will oppose the Lula government.
“I am without a mandate, but I am not retired. I am going to meet with the Party (Liberal, PL) and we are going to see what our strategy is. Not because of the party, but because of the country, in what way can we present ourselves better for Brazil”, he indicated, although he guaranteed that he had no “ambition for power”.
The former president once again used the situation in Venezuela to attack left-wing governments and warned that in Brazil “freedom and the economic future” of the country are at stake with Lula in power.
“The left is not on the right track (…) We are entering a hole from which it may be difficult to get out,” he warned, in addition to criticizing the alleged “indoctrination in schools” during the administrations of the Workers’ Party (PT) of Lula.