The National Police of Paraguay on Thursday arrested a Brazilian man convicted at large of plotting to detonate a bomb near the Brasilia airport on Christmas Eve last year. Wellington Macedo de Souza served at the Human Rights Ministry during the Jair Bolsonaro administration.
The Paraguayan police said in a statement that Mr. de Souza will be deported and handed over to the Brazilian Federal Police. According to Brazil’s Federal Police, another man arrested in Paraguay today is also connected to the January 8 riots. His identity was not disclosed.
In the early hours of December 24, 2022, Mr. Souza and two other men placed an explosive device in a parked fuel truck near the capital’s airport. Local police say the men attempted to set the bomb off remotely but failed. The bombing was part of a plan to support Mr. Bolsonaro, whose administration ended at the turn of the year. The driver of the truck, not considered part of the conspiracy, alerted local police about the bomb.
The other two men in the bomb plot are already under arrest. One of the trio, George Washington Sousa, told police they planned to create “chaos” with the explosion and create conditions for the former president — who had just another week left in office — to announce a state of emergency and prevent the transition of power to president Lula.
Mr. Souza was previously detained on a Supreme Court order after he told his blog viewers to participate in pro-Bolsonaro demonstrations in September 2021, which had explicit putschist calls — including demands for the shutdown of the country’s top court.
The blogger was later placed under house arrest and ordered to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, so police could keep tabs on him. However, he illegally removed the tracker just after the failed bomb plot.
Mr. Souza worked in the Human Rights Ministry for eight months in 2019 in the children and teenager’s rights secretariat – at the time led by far-right preacher Damares Alves. She is currently a senator.
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