Police in Brazil have arrested five people suspected of plotting to assassinate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva shortly before he was sworn in as president.
According to local media, four soldiers and one police officer were among those detained on Tuesday.
The five were allegedly part of a plot to assassinate President-elect Lula and his running mate Geraldo Alcman on December 15, 2022, just two weeks before the presidential inauguration.
Lula was elected in October 2022, defeating incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who has never publicly conceded defeat.
A week after Lula was sworn in, Bolsonaro supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace, vandalizing buildings.
Police eventually evacuated the rioters’ buildings and detained thousands of people.
Investigations into the events of January 8, 2023, as well as previous alleged attempts to prevent Lula from being sworn in, have been ongoing ever since.
However, this is the first time that the police have disclosed the alleged attempt to kill Lula.
Speaking after news of the arrests broke, Social Communications Minister Paulo Pimenta said the alleged plot to kill Lula and Alkman was almost advanced.
“It was just the details that stopped it. [from being carried out]said the minister.
Brazilian news site G1 said that what was particularly worrying was that four of those arrested were soldiers and a fifth was a serving member of the police force.
The AFP news agency quoted a federal police source as saying that the four soldiers were “arrested in Rio, where they were taking part in a security operation for the ongoing G20 leaders’ meeting in the Brazilian city”.
According to G1, the four soldiers, who received special forces training, are accused of being part of a criminal organization plotting against Lula.
Brazil’s federal police said in a statement that its investigation “indicates that the criminal organization used a high-level to plan, coordinate and carry out illegal operations in the months of November and December 2022.” made use of techno-military knowledge”.
According to the statement, the conspirators not only planned to assassinate the President-elect and the Vice-President, but also wanted to arrest and execute a member of the Supreme Court when their coup succeeded.
Police said the conspirators dubbed the operation the “Green and Yellow Dagger”, a reference to the colors of the Brazilian flag.
According to federal police, the conspirators discussed how best to “neutralize” Lula and Geraldo Alcman and allegedly settled on poisoning the president-elect.
The arrests were made on Tuesday morning local time and were approved by Supreme Court Justice Alexander de Moraes.
