Anderson Torres, justice minister during the Jair Bolsonaro administration and head of public security in Brazil’s capital during the January 8 riots, on Tuesday told lawmakers that he intended to dismantle the putschist pro-Bolsonaro camp near the Army’s headquarters in Brasília, in a story that does not hold water.
Mr. Torres told the select committee investigating the January 8 attacks that his first priority on taking office as Brasília’s security chief in early 2023 was to dismantle the camp, set up soon after the October 2022 election. Hundreds of pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators gathered there to call on Armed Forces to launch a coup and cancel the outcome of the election (which they falsely claim was rigged), to keep Mr. Bolsonaro in office.
Local Brasília police tried to dismantle the camp in late 2022 while Mr. Torres was still justice minister, but actions were blocked by the Army which has jurisdiction over military areas. Once President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in on January 1, his government took no further action against the camp until after the riots. The camp was cleared on the morning of January 9, and hundreds were arrested.
A report by the Justice Ministry later found that the protest camp was “central” to the unrest.
Mr. Torres told lawmakers today that he met with local police and security heads on January 6, and that he had “no official information that radical actions would take place on January 8.” He then famously left Brazil for a vacation in Florida, being out of the country during the riot in the capital.
Marília Ferreira Alencar, former undersecretary of intelligence in Brasília, told a separate select local legislature inquiry in March that the security department was informed about the possibility of a riot on January 7, with warnings of demonstrators clashing with police. Mr. Torres refused three times to attend the Brasília legislature hearing.
Mr. Torres’s explanation to lawmakers does not stand up under closer examination. If there was no indication of danger, why would dismantling the camp be an immediate priority? Furthermore, earlier attempts to clear the camp in late 2022 were thwarted by an Army under the command of the Jair Bolsonaro administration, of which he was a cabinet minister. Finally, if dismantling the camp was really a priority by January 10 as he claimed, surely he should have remained in Brazil rather than leaving for Florida.
Mr. Torres was arrested on his return to Brazil on January 14, as part of a Federal Police operation into his alleged role in facilitating the riots. He spent 117 days in jail and was released in May.
Two days before his arrest, the Federal Police found a draft putschist decree in his home in Brasília. While unconstitutional, the document was seemingly drafted to grant Mr. Bolsonaro power to overturn the 2022 presidential election.
Mr. Torres told lawmakers today that the draft was a “juridical aberration,” and argued he failed to destroy it “by mere carelessness”.
While in jail, Mr. Torres was visited by pro-Bolsonaro lawmakers, including the Senate’s opposition whip, Rogério Marinho.
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