Brazil confronts military officers accused of plotting a coup in historic trial

SAO PAULO (AP) – When Lt. Col. Mauro Cid arrived at Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday to testify against his onetime ally, former Defense Minister Gen. Walter Braga Netto, he did not salute the senior officer.

It was a departure from military protocol that underscored how the country’s once hugely popular military has been divided and roiled by scandal as Brazil tries an explosive case in which top military officers are accused of helping former President Jair Bolsonaro attempt a coup to remain in power after losing an election.

Analysts said that the two men’s appearance in a civilian court marked a historic departure from the impunity senior military officers have enjoyed since the country underwent two decades of military rule.

“Putting a colonel up against a general levels the playing the field and signals that for the justice system, all defendants are equal,” said Lucas Figueiredo, the author of several books about Brazil’s dictatorship. “The truth will prevail.”

Cid, a former aide-de-camp to Bolsonaro who signed a plea bargain to cooperate with authorities, has already testified that Braga Netto took part in a meeting in November 2022 during which military officials discussed plans to stop current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office.

Braga Netto is a close ally of Bolsonaro who also served as the former president’s chief-of-staff and his 2022 running mate.

The officers are standing trial alongside Bolsonaro, several other officers, and a few civilians. They face five charges including attempting to stage a coup, involvement in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, aggravated damage and degredation of listed heritage.

A verdict is expected by the end of 2025.

Cid says that in the days after Bolsonaro lost to Lula, he was called to Braga Netto’s office and handed a bag of cash to distribute to Bolsonaro supporters camped outside the military headquarters. Braga Netto denies the account and calls Cid a traitor.

The two men were summoned to the Supreme Court on Tuesday for a confrontation, a step in Brazilian legal procedure in which the judge and both parties can interrogate witnesses about discrepancies in their testimony.

The examination was conducted behind closed doors by order of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is chair the coup probe and did not provide more details about the decision. Brazilian law allows closed court hearings when matters of national security or deeply personal matters are involved.

Braga Netto arrived at the court in the country’s capital of Brasilia from his jail cell in Rio de Janeiro, where he has been detained for obstructing investigations since December.

A staffer of the Supreme Court who observed the testimony told The Associated Press that both Braga Netto and Cid mostly stuck to their contradictory versions of events and avoided even looking at each other despite sitting opposite one another.

The staffer spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

In a heated exchange, the former defense minister shot back that Cid was a “liar,” said Braga Netto’s lawyer, José Luis Oliveira.

Moraes’ decision to call both men for questioning at the same time signaled the judge’s lack of confidence in their testimonies, legal experts and officials said.

The fact that the two men appeared in a civilian court at all was a break from decades of impunity enjoyed by Brazilian senior officers.

No one in Brazil has been sent to jail on charges related to the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, unlike in neighboring countries Argentina and Chile. And Bolsonaro, despite facing a tangle of serious legal charges, remains the face of the country’s opposition to President Lula.

The last Brazilian general to be jailed was Argemiro de Assis Brasil, who was arrested in 1964 for opposing the coup d’etat in which the military seized power.

Since the beginning of the proceedings, members of the military establishment have claimed the Supreme Court trial is an embarrassment to the armed forces.

“Such questioning doesn’t help the armed forces,” said Gen. Roberto Peternelli, a former congressman affiliated with Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party. “In my perspective, it ends up harming the country.”

The accused sought to avoid civilian court by seeking a trial at the country’s Superior Military Tribunal, where legal experts say they were more likely to find sympathy.

The military court, which handles only a few dozen cases a year, refused the cases.

“Members of the military court understood that, though perpetrated by military personnel, these are not military crimes,” said Alexandre Knopfholz, a law professor at UniCuritiba.

Millions of Brazilians have seen the case play out on TV over the past two years, from raids in which federal police arrest suspects and seize documents to court testimony.

Still, some experts doubt that Cid and Braga Netto would end up serving out full sentences behind bars, even if they are found guilty.

“This is the middle of the probe. We should not forget that every coup-mongering military man in Brazilian history was pardoned,” said Fabio Victor, author of a book about the links between the military and politics after Brazil’s transition to democracy in 1985.

But he acknowledged: “The fact that generals have become defendants for an attempted coup does show some evolution.”

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Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro.