Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) acted to fulfill 46 search and seizure warrants and one arrest warrant on Monday against people suspected of financing the January 8, 2023, Brasilia riot.
That day, thousands of supporters of conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro flocked to the heart of Brasilia – home to the nation’s Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential office – to protest against the election of socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Lula defeated Bolsonaro and began his third presidential term on January 1, 2023.
The protest turned into a riot after the protesters stormed the premises of Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), and the Planalto presidential palace, causing significant damage to the facilities, furniture, and priceless historical artifacts housed therein. There were no reported deaths as a result of the riot.
Monday’s police warrants are part of the 23rd phase of Operation “Lesa Pátria,” (a Portuguese idiom that roughly translates to “crimes against the state”). The operation is a broad permanent investigation against individuals or organizations suspected of having financed, organized, and/or participated in the January 8 riot. The warrants in this latest wave were issued for locations in 11 of Brazil’s 27 States.
Brazil’s TV Globo reported on Monday that the preventive arrest warrant was issued against Wagner Ferreira Filho, a Brazilian citizen accused of paying 24,000 Brazilian reais ($4,917) to charter a bus for the January 8 protesters. According to local police investigations, Ferreira Filho’s fingerprints were found on a glass frame inside the Brazilian Congress.
The Brazilian police did not disclose the identities of the targets of the 46 search and seizure warrants.
The broad permanent operation was authorized by STF Minister and self-styled “anti-fake news crusader” Alexandre de Moraes, who has issued over 6,200 orders since January 8, 2023, related to the riot investigation.
As of September, Brazilian courts have sentenced over 30 people convicted of participating in “undemocratic acts,” “violent abolition of the democratic rule of law,” “staging a coup d’etat,” and other charges related to the January 8 events.
Brazil’s STF is reportedly planning a trial for 146 individuals accused of being involved in the riot, scheduled to take place in April across ten virtual sessions. Another group of 29 criminal cases will resume trial proceedings in February. In total, 1,345 criminal cases have been opened. Under de Moraes, the STF also froze access to the assets of those being investigated in 2023. According to the STF, the damages caused during the January 8 riots totaled about 40 million Brazilian reais ($8.19 million).
In addition to being an STF minister (justice), de Moraes is also the head of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Brazil’s top electoral authority. As head of the TSE, de Moraes enacted widespread censorship throughout the 2022 presidential election that heavily favored Lula’s campaign. De Moraes also authorized multiple police raids against lawmakers, comedians, content creators, and regular Brazilian citizens who had expressed support for Bolsonaro.
Last year, TSE banned Bolsonaro from running for office until 2030 after the electoral court ruled that Bolsonaro “violated election laws” by spreading “misinformation” about Brazilian electoral voting machines during an official encounter with foreign ambassadors in July 2022.
The Brazilian government is slated to begin construction of a “Museum of Democracy,” planned to open in 2025, to commemorate the January 8 riot. The museum, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, will not be tied to any political ideology and will instead be “built in tune with all those who support democracy.”
Construction of the 40-million-reais ($8.19 million) museum will be funded with resources from the “Growth Acceleration Plan” (PAC), an ambitious program launched by Lula last year that seeks to spend upwards of 1.7 trillion Brazilian reais ($347.5 billion) over the next four years on infrastructure works to “fulfill the role of putting the State’s capacity at the service of the Brazilian population’s dreams of a better life.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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