Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Photo by Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom/Agência Brasil/Flickr. As world leaders met in Rio de Janeiro for the G20 summit on November 19, Brazil’s Federal Police arrested five individuals for their involvement in a 2022 plot to assassinate then-president elect Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Four of those arrested were military personnel assigned to guard the summit. The fifth was a police officer. The suspects could be charged with violent abolition of the rule of law, coup-plotting, and being part of a criminal organization. The assassination plot was allegedly orchestrated after Lula’s victory over far-right Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 election. Led by a team of active and reservist special operations soldiers, the plan implicates high-ranking members of Bolsonaro’s inner circle, including General Mario Fernandes (who served as a senior advisor to the former president), and General Walter Braga Netto (Bolsonaro’s defence minister from 2021-2022 and his 2022 vice-presidential candidate). According to the Federal Police, Fernandes led the preparation of “Green and Yellow Dagger,” the conspiracy to kidnap and possibly kill Lula, Alckmin, and Moraes. The plot was allegedly discussed at the home of Defence Minister Netto on November 12, 2022, in a meeting organized by Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp Mauro Cid. Haven’t seen any English language news cover this yet so here is the scoop. Brazilian federal police found evidence, coming directly from Bolsonaro’s staff, that show detailed plans to assassinate Lula, his VP, and other members of the incoming government. https://t.co/Pqvb0RJEJG— Regime Economist (@binraccooon) November 19, 2024 On December 6, Fernandes wrote a list of supplies needed for the coup attempt, including pistols, rifles, grenade launchers, and rocket launchers. In the following weeks, the plotters kept a close eye on Moraes’ movements. Then, on January 8, Bolsonaro supporters invaded Brazil’s Congress in a futile attempt to overturn the election results. The Federal Police are currently investigating links between the attack on the Congress and the assassination plot. In his decision to authorize the November 19 arrests, Moraes stated that the plotters had aimed to “neutralize” him, and also to “eliminate the winning presidential ticket by assassinating President Lula and vice-president Alckmin.” Investigators claim that the would-be assassins considered “the possibility of using poisoning or chemicals to cause an organic collapse.” While Lula himself has not commented on the story, his minister of communications stated that the investigation has brought to light “new and extremely serious elements about the involvement of people from the core of Bolsonaro’s government in the coup. They tried to prevent the inauguration of the elected president and vice-president.” The fact that Bolsonaro’s close associates were involved in a coup attempt and assassination plot should come as little surprise, particularly given the former president’s open fondness for the Brazilian military dictatorship of 1964-1985, his praising of murderous Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner, and his belief that General Augusto Pinochet “had to cause a bloodbath” in Chile. This raises the question—why did the Trudeau government support him during his years in power? In the first place, Bolsonaro only attained power because of a campaign of political persecution against Lula, who was arrested in April 2018 and prevented from running in a presidential election that he likely would have won. The “Lava Jato” investigation that led to Lula’s arrest had a well-documented political bias. On Telegram messages leaked to Intercept Brasil, top prosecutors communicated openly about their true intention: to prevent Lula, the most popular politician in the country, from running against Bolsonaro. Prosecutors worked with American authorities over the course of the investigation, sometimes keeping their cooperation secret from the incumbent Dilma Rousseff administration. These revelations led Justice Gilmar Mendes to label Lava Jato “the biggest judicial scandal” in the history of Brazil. After more than a year in jail, Lula was released in November 2019. In March 2021, Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin ruled that the court presided over by Moro had lacked the jurisdiction to prosecute Lula and his charges were annulled, restoring his rights and setting the stage for his 2022 election victory. Ottawa did not criticize the Brazilian right’s political persecution of Lula. In fact, Canadian companies welcomed the right’s seizure of power in 2018, which had been preceded by a legal coup against President Rousseff in 2016 and Lula’s arrest. As a CBC News Alert from October 28, 2018 casually admitted: “Brazil’s new president elect, Jair Bolsonaro, is a right-winger who leans towards more open markets. This could mean fresh opportunities for Canadian companies looking to invest in the resource-rich country.” Brazil's new president elect, Jair Bolsonaro, is a right-winger who leans towards more open markets. This could mean fresh opportunities for Canadian companies looking to invest in the resource-rich country. https://t.co/g00QUOeutt— CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) October 28, 2018 In October 2018, Chrystia Freeland tweeted that “Canada and Brazil enjoy a strong friendship and we are thankful for your support in defending the international rules-based order and holding the Maduro regime in Venezuela to account.” Next year, Trudeau and Bolsonaro warmly greeted one another at the G20 summit in Japan. When confronted over Canadian hypocrisy in Brazil, Trudeau never had a response. At a town hall in January 2019, a man confronted the prime minister over his support for Bolsonaro, asking why Ottawa was leading a coalition to overthrow Venezuela’s government while letting the far-right Brazilian president off the hook for prosecuting his main political rival. Trudeau simply ignored the question and stated that Venezuelans “need true democracy.” In fact, Canada has a long history of supporting anti-democratic forces in Brazil. As Yves Engler and I explain in our book Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy, Ottawa tacitly supported the 1964 coup that brought to power Bolsonaro’s beloved military government. Prime Minister Lester Pearson did not condemn the overthrow of elected President João Goulart, and as Rosana Barbosa writes, “The Canadian reaction to the military coup of 1964 was careful, polite and allied with American rhetoric.” Major Canadian companies welcomed the 1964 overthrow of Goulart. Brazilian Traction, later known as Brascan and now called Brookfield Asset Management, was the leading Canadian supporter of the dictatorship. As Brazilian Traction President Grant Glassco said after the coup, “the new government of Brazil is… made up of men of proven competence and integrity. The President, Humberto Castello Branco, commands the respect of the entire nation.” Brascan extracted $342 million USD ($2 billion USD today) from Brazil between 1964 to 1974. Today, the total value of Canadian direct investment in Brazil is $25.3 billion. Canadian companies have major interests in the country, especially in mining, energy, and infrastructure. Just like Brascan and the Pearson government quietly backed the 1964 military coup, so did Canadian capital and the Trudeau government tacitly support Rousseff’s 2016 impeachment, the imprisonment of Lula, and Bolsonaro’s rise to power. Ottawa has always been aware of Bolsonaro’s character: he is a racist, elitist figure of the extreme right, never one to hide his disdain for women, racialized people, environmentalists, and the left. The assassination plot by members of Bolsonaro’s inner circle is the latest indication of the Brazilian right’s intense hatred for their political enemies. For years, their attacks on the left have been supported by Washington and Ottawa, whose companies benefit from the policies implemented by these reactionary governments. In this way, Canada played a role in creating the conditions that enabled Bolsonaro’s quasi-fascist and anti-democratic tendencies. Owen Schalk is a writer from rural Manitoba. He is the author of Canada in Afghanistan: A story of military, diplomatic, political and media failure, 2003-2023 and the co-author of Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy with Yves Engler.

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