(Reuters) — A man detained for attempting to detonate a bomb at a protest against Brazil’s election result was inspired by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s call to arm himself to create an arsenal, according to a copy of his police testimony seen by Reuters.
George Washington de Oliveira Sousa was detained on Saturday, a day after police said they foiled his plan to set off an explosive device near the Brasilia airport.
The incident added a new dimension to post-election violence in Brazil, where tensions remain high after the closest elections in decades.
Incoming Justice Minister Flavio Dino said in a television interview on Monday that security will need to be strengthened for the inauguration on Sunday of left-wing President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro.
“We’re not talking about a lone wolf,” Dino said of Sousa. “There are powerful people behind this and the police will investigate. We will not allow political terrorism in Brazil.”
File photo. Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro take part in a demonstration against the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as the new president in front of the National Congress in Brasilia, on November 30, 2022. (Credit: EVARISTO SA / AFP)
Sousa’s first lawyer, Wallison dos Reis Pereira, said he had confessed and was cooperating with police. His current lawyer, Jorge Chediak, said he had not yet spoken to Sousa, who is in jail, but said his confession to police was full of “contradictions.”
Sousa, 54, a gas station manager in the northern state of Pará, told police that Bolsonaro’s sowing of electoral doubts inspired his trip to the capital on December 12.
After arriving in Brasilia, he joined a camp of Bolsonaro supporters in front of the Army headquarters who were calling for a coup.
“My trip to Brasilia was to join the protests in front of the army headquarters and wait for the armed forces to authorize me to take up arms and destroy communism,” he said, according to a copy of his testimony.
Sousa said he had become a registered gun owner in October last year, joining a group that has grown six-fold to nearly 700,000 since Bolsonaro was elected in 2018 and began easing gun ownership laws.
The executive said he had invested nearly 160,000 reais ($30,800) since then in his arsenal. He took two 12-gauge shotguns, two revolvers, three pistols, a rifle, more than a thousand cartridges, and five sticks of dynamite on his trip to Brasilia.
“What motivated me to buy the weapons were the words of President Bolsonaro, who always emphasized the importance of civilians being armed saying: ‘An armed population will never be enslaved,'” Sousa said.
