In Orlando (Florida), Jair Bolsonaro has been enjoying quiet days since leaving Brazil, two days before the handover of power on New Year’s Day. Also, a month after the January 8 uprising in Brasilia, the ex-president is in no hurry to return to his native country. Especially since on the spot, Alexandre de Moraes awaits him firmly. President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (STE, which oversees the regularity of the elections) and judge at the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF, the Supreme Court), this 54-year-old magistrate is in charge of the investigation into the ransacking, by the Bolsonarist mob, of three emblematic places of power: the presidential palace, the Congress and the Supreme Court.
However, the magistrate included Bolsonaro in the list of people he wants to question. Moraes is indeed trying to find out to what extent the exile from Florida weighed on the course of the insurrection, before – and even after – the events. On January 10, Bolsonaro shared on his Facebook account (15 million followers) a video where the prosecutor of Mato Grosso, an agricultural and conservative state, claimed that Lula had not been elected, but simply “chosen and appointed by the members of the STF and the STE”.
Bolsonaro’s ex-minister arrested
Renowned for his intransigence since the time when, in 2016, he was interior minister of the state of Sao Paulo (44 million inhabitants), Moraes has been nicknamed “Robocop”. At his request, the police picked up Anderson Torres when he got off the plane from Florida on January 14. A former Bolsonarist Minister of Justice, the latter was in charge of the security of the Federal District of Brasilia at the time of the riots, which he let happen.
The day before his return, the police had seized a three-page document from his home bearing the name of Jair Bolsonaro (but not his signature) in the form of a draft decree aimed at to cancel the presidential election. On January 20, the ex-president spoke on the subject, via a press release: “This document is apocryphal, it never left the private residence of Anderson Torres, it never exceeded the stage of cogitation”. Bolsonaro had nevertheless – and on several occasions – publicly questioned the Brazilian electronic vote, which is nevertheless deemed reliable.
A “farm fake news“
Between Robocop, from the elite of Sao Paulo, and the ex-captain of infantry who became a deputy for Rio and then president, the hatred is not new. In August 2021, the first had opened an investigation against the second for “disinformation”, accusing him of having sheltered a “farm at the presidency”. fake news” managed by his sons. “I will no longer respect the slightest decision of Judge Moraes, then thundered the Head of State. My patience has limits”. But the wheel is turning and a purge is underway among the military. More than fifty of them, including some assigned to the presidential residence, have been dismissed.
Worried for his safety, Lula also dismissed the army chief. “Alexandre de Moraes instilled fear in the Bolsonaro camp,” observes political scientist Camila Rocha. Half-human, half-robot, the character of Robocop has always impressed his opponents…