Federal Police agents on Friday arrested the commander of the Brasília local police and six other officers as part of an investigation into their omissions during the January 8 riots, when several thousand pro-Bolsonaro radicals stormed and ransacked the buildings of the three branches of government in Brazil’s capital.
The Prosecutor General’s Office today also charged the seven officers with the crimes of omission, violent attack on the rule of law, attempted coup d’etat, and crimes related to damage to public property. According to the investigation, a group within the Brasília police “has shown itself to have adopted conspiracy theories about electoral fraud.”
On messaging apps, the officers shared putschist messages and questioned the fairness of the electoral process. Prosecutor Carlos Frederico Santos wrote that he found “ideological alignment and intent between the indictees and those who called for the intervention of the Armed Forces” in Brazil’s election results.
Mr. Santos added that there was no “intelligence blackout” on January 8, but that the officers deliberately failed to prevent the riots, accepting “the results envisaged by the anti-democratic mob and joining in the criminal intent of the insurgents.”
The investigation showed that the accused police officers were aware of the dozens of buses carrying protesters that arrived in Brasília. Mr. Santos also highlighted the episode of the attempted invasion of the Federal Police headquarters on December 12; no one was arrested that night.
Separately, select committees in both the local Brasília legislature and Congress are also investigating the January 8 riots. Lawmakers close to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are focusing on the role of Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies in instigating and organizing the riots, while the pro-Bolsonaro opposition is seeking to demonstrate the federal government’s failure to provide adequate security that day.
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