Bolsonaro resorted to a coup after finding no evidence of electoral fraud.
According to Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro's 'plan B' in the absence of fraud in the election was to try to convince the military to stage a coup.
247 - The testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, former aide to Jair Bolsonaro (PL), reveals that the former president incited his supporters to create "chaos," aiming to stimulate an intervention by the Armed Forces to justify a coup d'état, after finding no evidence that the 2022 elections had been fraudulent. The secrecy of Mauro Cid's plea bargain was lifted this Wednesday (19) by a decision of STF minister Alexandre de Moraes.
According to GloboNews, in his testimony to the Federal Police, Cid highlighted that "Bolsonaro didn't want people to leave the streets because he was certain he would find fraud in the electronic voting machines and, therefore, he needed a popular outcry to reverse the narrative."
According to Mauro Cid, the former president "was working with two hypotheses: the first would be to find fraud in the elections, and the second, through the radical group, to find a way to convince the Armed Forces to join the coup d'état."
Therefore, according to Cid's account, Bolsonaro first wanted to find alleged fraud, which is why he met with Walter Delgatti, the 'hacker', and then convinced the PL party to file a lawsuit requesting the annulment of votes from some ballot boxes. If the search for fraud failed, Bolsonaro wanted a radical group to create a chaotic situation in the country to find a way to convince the Armed Forces to join a coup.
