Questioned by the Supreme Court, general says he heard Bolsonaro's "monologue".

Felipe Pontes - Reporter for Agência Brasil

General Estevam Cals Theophilo Gaspar de Oliveira confirmed this Monday (28) that he met with former President Jair Bolsonaro in December 2022, but repeated that he heard a complaint from the then president, who lamented the electoral process in which he had just been defeated.

The military officer was questioned as a defendant in the third group of the coup plot. Composed of ten defendants, the group was accused by the Attorney General's Office (PGR) of carrying out field actions in favor of the coup and of promoting a campaign to convince the high command of the Armed Forces to join the plot.

Teophilo appears in the Attorney General's Office's complaint in a message exchanged between Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro's former aide and whistleblower in the coup plot, and Lieutenant Colonel Bernardo Romão Correa Neto.

In the text, Cid tells Correa that the general "wants to do it, as long as the President signs it." For the Attorney General's Office (PGR), this shows that Estevam Teóphilo would have made himself available for a possible power grab during the meeting he attended at the Alvorada Palace on December 9, 2022.

As he had already stated in his testimony to the Federal Police, Teóphilo denied any involvement or even proximity to the others involved in a coup plot. He said the meeting was "a monologue" in which he sought to console the former president.

The general pointed to the testimony of General Freire Gomes, commander of the Army in December 2022, who testified in the case that he himself had ordered Teóphilo to meet with the former president in his place, as he had been summoned to a meeting with Bolsonaro but was out of Brasília at the time.

According to the Attorney General's Office, Freire Gomes' resistance to joining the plot was one of the main factors in the failure of the coup attempt. In this sense, "General Freire Gomes would never have sent someone to talk to him [Bolsonaro] who wanted to inflame tensions, quite the opposite," Teóphilo observed.

"I was not presented with any document, nor was anything illegal or unconstitutional proposed to me, in a way that would allow me to agree or not; I emphasize this here," the general reiterated.

Ten defendants

The Supreme Federal Court (STF) will hold on Monday (28) the interrogations of core 3 of the coup plot, which is made up of nine military officers and one federal police officer.

The group is accused of carrying out field operations to consummate the coup, putting into motion a plan to "neutralize" adversaries, and also of promoting a campaign to pressure the high command of the Armed Forces to join the coup plot.

Check out the defendants who will be questioned this Monday:

• Bernardo Romão Correa Netto (colonel);
• Estevam Theóphilo (general);
• Fabrício Moreira de Bastos (colonel);
• Hélio Ferreira (lieutenant colonel);
• Marcio Nunes De Resende Junior (colonel);
• Rafael Martins de Oliveira (lieutenant colonel);
• Rodrigo Bezerra de Azevedo (lieutenant colonel);
• Ronald Ferreira de Araújo Junior (lieutenant colonel);
• Sergio Ricardo Cavaliere de Medeiros (lieutenant colonel);
• Wladimir Matos Soares (federal police officer).