Priest indicted along with Bolsonaro and military officers for conspiracy in Brazil

SÃO PAULO – The Brazilian Federal police indicted former President Jair Bolsonaro and another 36 suspects on Nov. 21 for allegedly conspiring to stage a coup at the end of 2022 and prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the winner of the presidential race in October of that year, taking office in 2023.

The list, which is formed mainly by high-ranking military officials connected to Bolsonaro, curiously includes a Catholic priest, Father José Eduardo de Oliveira e Silva of the Diocese of Osasco, on the outskirts of São Paulo.

After several months of investigation, the police concluded this week an inquiry on an attempted coup planned in 2022, after Bolsonaro was electorally defeated by Lula.

Bolsonaro had been claiming in the months before the election that the voting machines used in Brazil were not trustworthy and that any result that was different from his victory would be false. After he lost the race, many of his supporters promoted protests all over the South American country, blocking roads with their trucks and camping in front of military barracks.

On January 8, only one week after Lula took office, hundreds of Bolsonaro backers invaded government buildings in Brasilia, vandalizing them and calling the armed forces to take control of the country. The event was largely compared to the January 6 Capitol riots in the United States.

The police now discovered that several officials, including colonels and generals who were part of Bolsonaro’s cabinet or of his entourage, conspired to take control of the country. General Walter Braga Neto, who was Bolsonaro’s Minister of Defense and was his running mate in 2022, and General Augusto Heleno, also a minister of Bolsonaro and one of the most important voices during his administration, are on the list.

According to the investigation, the suspects organized activity groups – some of them were in charge of spreading fake news concerning the voting machines, others were responsible for intelligence, and others should prepare the decrees that would be promulgated.

On Nov. 19, the federal police revealed that some of those conspirators were planning to kill Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is in charge of the inquiry on the coup. The idea of the group was to poison them or kill them with explosives.

Father de Oliveira e Silva, according to the police, was part of the legal group. He had already been targeted by a search and seizure operation in February, when he had to hand his smartphone to the authorities. Since then, he has been forbidden to leave the country.

The police said Silva visited the presidential palace in November of 2022, along with two other suspects. They supposedly discussed a coup against Lula.

Silva has over 420,000 followers on Instagram and 130,000 on YouTube. He gained notoriety over the past years for his harsh criticism of abortion, feminism, and gender ideology and for his defense of traditionalist Catholicism. During the elections in 2022, he posted a picture of his pulpit covered with a Brazilian flag, a national symbol that was sequestered by the Bolsonaro campaign.

Silva claimed in February that he never took part in any discussion about abolishing the rule of law in Brazil, “something that would be profoundly contrary to [his] principles.” He also said that he is usually called to provide spiritual assistance to many people not only in Osasco, but also in other parts of Brazil.

Silva, who is an ecclesiastical assistant of the Brazilian Union of Catholic Jurists, appointed as his attorney Miguel Vidigal, who heads the association. In a statement released on Nov. 7, after a hearing of Silva with the police, Vidigal said that the agents “rummaged talks between the priest and laypeople and religious who are spiritually directed by him” on his smartphone.

Vidigal emphasized that such talks are under the protection of priestly secrecy and didn’t have any relation with the investigated matters, being taken out of their original context. He recalled that Brazil and the Holy See have a treaty in which priestly secrecy is ensured.

“If it wasn’t enough, beyond the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, there are several legal articles that ensure that the priest and the faithful can keep their conversation in total confidentiality,” Vidigal said.

Concerning the disclosure of the list of indicted people on Nov. 21, Vidigal said that it was “abusive” given that Justice de Moraes has been keeping the inquiry secret. The federal police said it received authorization from the Supreme Court to release the list.

According to newspaper O Globo, the participation of a priest in the conspiracy was revealed by Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, formerly a close aide of Bolsonaro who agreed with the investigators to provide critical information in exchange for legal benefits.

No information on the potential detention of the indicted suspects has been disclosed by the Brazilian authorities.