On October 17, 2022, less than two weeks before the runoff vote in Brazil’s general elections, Tarcísio de Freitas — the then-frontrunner for the São Paulo gubernatorial race — had to interrupt a campaign event in the sprawling Paraisópolis favela in the state capital due to nearby gunshots.
Mr. Freitas had been visiting a higher education learning center when the shooting began, and he was promptly whisked away by his minders. “We were attacked by criminals,” he posted on Twitter, now X. The evidence, however, suggested otherwise.
About a year on from the incident and Mr. Freitas’s comfortable election victory, Brazil’s Federal Police are investigating the São Paulo governor for potential electoral crimes. The suspicion is that he gained an advantage by furthering a false narrative that he had been targeted by an assassination attempt carried out by organized criminals.
A civil police investigation on the day of the shooting found that the confrontation was not directly linked to the then-candidate, instead coming as a result of the increased police presence in Paraisópolis that caused unease among local drug groups. The then-state security secretary stressed on the day that any claims of the incident being an “assassination attempt” were “premature.”
In a press conference later that afternoon, Mr. Freitas said the shots fired “had nothing to do with an electoral issue.” He also denied ever saying he and his team were victims of an assassination attempt,...
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