Insider

Former intelligence head says January 8 riots were ‘unimaginable’ despite warnings

Former head of Brazil’s top intelligence agency, General Marco Edson Gonçalves Dias. Photo: Edilson Rodrigues/Agência Senado

Retired Army General Gonçalves Dias, who briefly served as head of Brazil’s top intelligence agency earlier this year, told lawmakers on Thursday that the January 8 riots were “unimaginable” – despite all public evidence to the contrary.

The putschist pro-Bolsonaro demonstrations were openly planned on social media. The vandals gave the operation a code name: “Selma’s party” — a play on the word selva (jungle), military slang in Brazil for “let’s go” or “I’m ready.”

The day before the incident, Justice Minister Flávio Dino tweeted that he was aware of an alleged “war” in Brasília, about which he had spoken with the defense minister and the local governor, and informed the Federal Police.

In addition, a recent investigation revealed that local police officers in Brasília were aware of the dozens of buses of protesters that arrived in the capital, as well as of the demonstrators’ potential to resort to violence.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva kept Gen. Dias in his ministerial position as head of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) after the riots. He was only fired in April after CNN Brasil aired surveillance footage of him inside the presidential palace during the attack, showing an apparently friendly demeanor toward the rioters.

Gen. Dias today told the select congressional committee on the January 8 riots that the footage broadcast by CNN Brasil was “edited and distorted”. The aired footage was initially blurred to obscure the faces of other military personnel on the scene. Gen. Dias argued that it would be “no use” for the police or the military to “go about hitting people” after the invasion had already begun.

Days after the riots, Lula said he was “convinced” that the doors of the presidential palace had been opened to let the demonstrators in. Senator Magno Malta, a pro-Bolsonaro member of the opposition, asked Gen. Dias what he thought of the president’s remarks.

Gen. Dias replied that “there are always failures in any kind of operation,” and refused to say “whether the president was right or wrong.” He added that the security department of the local Brasília government said on January 6 that everything was “under control” and that special preparations would be unnecessary.