Insider

Former Brasília police head remains silent at January 8 inquiry

Former Brasilia police head Fábio Augusto Vieira at the congressional committee investigating the January 8 riots. Photo: Marcos Oliveira/Agência Senado.

Police colonel Fábio Augusto Vieira, who was the commander of local Brasília police during the January 8 riots, decided on Tuesday to remain silent before the joint congressional committee investigating the unrest.

Mr. Vieira has been arrested twice this year as part of investigations into the riots — when several thousand pro-Bolsonaro radicals stormed and ransacked the buildings of the three branches of government in Brazil’s capital. Two weeks ago, he was charged by the Prosecutor General’s Office for 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 force had “shown itself to have adopted conspiracy theories about electoral fraud.”

The investigation found that the police officers shared pro-coup posts on messaging apps 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. Furthermore, the investigation demonstrates that the police were aware of the dozens of buses carrying protesters that arrived in Brasília.

In late 2022, during the last days of the Jair Bolsonaro administration, Colonel Vieira started an operation with around 500 police officers to dismantle the putschist camp set up by pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators near the Army’s headquarters. At the time, he said the operation was canceled at the request of the military, which has jurisdiction over the area. Weeks later, a report by the Justice Ministry found that the protest camp was “central” to the unrest.

Mr. Vieira was more eloquent in a separate public hearing at the local Brasília legislature back in May, before he was charged. On that occasion, he blamed the public security department for a lack of planning ahead of the riots.