Former head of Security in Brasilia, arrested, accused of “collusion” in the assault on January 8

First modification: 01/14/2023 – 19:02

Anderson Torres, who was on vacation in Florida, was arrested after returning to Brazil this Saturday, January 14.

Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered his arrest on Tuesday, citing charges of “omission” and “collusion” in the January 8 events in Brasilia. Upon learning of the arrest warrant, Torres had said that same day that he would return to Brazil to appear before Justice.

Torres, who was Minister of Justice in the Bolsonaro government, was in charge of public security in Brasilia during the invasion of government buildings and was dismissed after the events. He is suspected of colluding with the rioters.

According to the general director of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, “the various omissions, presumably intentional, carried out by those responsible for public security in the Federal District contributed to the practice of terrorist acts.”

Former President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since late December, was also singled out for his possible role in the January 8 assault.

The far-right, who was defeated by Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva in the presidential elections of October 2022, “publicly incited the execution of a crime” by posting a video on social networks “questioning the regularity of the presidential elections of 2022,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

The Supreme Court of Brazil authorized the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the alleged role that the former president would have had in the attack.

Take control of the Superior Electoral Tribunal

Torres was accused after the discovery of a draft decree found at his home, which provided for the creation of an “electoral regulation commission” to replace the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), “to guarantee the preservation and restoration of transparency and the approval of the regularity of the electoral process of the 2022 presidential elections”. The commission would have been led by various members of the Ministry of Defence.

This proposal is considered unconstitutional by many jurists and its wording reveals the intention to annul the election of ‘Lula’. The document does not have an exact date: it only indicates that it was created last December, but Bolsonaro’s name is at the end, in a space for his signature.

But according to Torres, the document was taken out of context when his home was raided this week.

“In my house there was a pile of documents to be deleted, where the material described in the report was most likely found (…) The mentioned document was captured when I was not there… and leaked out of context, contributing to fueling false narratives against me,” he tweeted Thursday.

For their part, members of the ‘Lula’ Administration condemned the events.

“33 million Brazilians going hungry and they plotting a coup. The concern of fascism has always been power, authoritarianism, prejudice, never the lives of people. We are a democratic nation and we will continue to be so,” he tweeted on Friday the leftist senator Randolfe Rodrigues, leader of the parliamentary bloc of the ‘Lula’ government in the Upper House.

“This shows that what we saw on January 8 was not an isolated act. (The draft decree) is one of the links in a coup chain,” said Justice Minister Flavio Dino on Thursday morning. night.

With Reuters and AFP