The federal intervenor in public security in the Federal District (DF), Ricardo Cappelli, presented this Friday (27th), in a press conference, the report on the operational failures that resulted in the attempted coup d’état on January 8th, when the headquarters of the Three Powers of the Republic, in Brasília, were invaded and vandalized by right-wing extremists who supported former President Jair Bolsonaro.
The document brings together photos, images, memos, letters and information about the entire process related to the coup camp at the Army Headquarters (QG) and the preparatory acts for the anti-democratic attacks that shook the country’s capital. According to the intervenor, the report will now be sent to the heads of powers and made available for public access.
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One of the points highlighted by Cappelli is that the Public Security Secretariat of the DF received information from the intelligence area about the high probability of violent acts in the capital two days before the attacks. At the time, the portfolio was headed by Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro’s former minister and who returned to the DF Government at the invitation of Governor Ibaneis Rocha, currently removed from office.
“In that intelligence report, where it was said that the demonstration was called a seizure of power, it stated that there was a concrete threat of invasion of public buildings. There was no lack of information. On Friday, the 6th, the Secretary’s office received the information”, said Cappelli.
No operational plan
Despite the intelligence alert, there was no preparation of an operational plan or issue of service orders for police action, as normally should occur in cases like this.
“In the events of the 8th, this did not happen. There is no operational plan or service order. What happened was just a bureaucratic transfer of the letter received, for some units, by the Military Police Operations Department”, he added.
The federal intervenor in the DF also stated that some of the main battalions of the Military Police did not receive the intelligence document and were not even summoned to act on the 8th.
“These two issues call attention. First, there was no operational plan and not even a service order. There was only one memorandum (from the intelligence sector) forwarded, (but which) did not reach important battalions, such as the BPCães (Policing Battalion with Dogs), Bavop (Operational Aviation Battalion), RPMon (Mounted Police Regiment) and even Bope (Special Operations Battalion). These were not even triggered. So, there is an operational failure,” he said.
Cappelli also said that commanders of some of the most important PMDF battalions were on vacation or off on those days, including the Commander of the Shock Battalion and the Commander of the Department of Operations. The coincidence, according to the secretary, may not have been by chance. Former secretary Anderson Torres himself traveled to the United States two days before the acts.
“This set of coincidences can characterize something much worse than the absence of command and responsibility”, he emphasized.
There are six Military Police Inquiries (IMP) open at the moment to investigate everything that happened, one of them just to verify the behavior of the commanders. Torres is still imprisoned in Brasilia, by order of the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes.
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Coordinated coup action
Ricardo Cappelli also highlighted that, in the analysis of the acts of the 8th, it was verified an intentional action by the extremists, who came equipped with devices to carry out the coup attempt, including even radiocommunicators.
“In the middle of the way (between the camp and the Esplanade) there are apprehensions of people with masks, marbles, and devices that have already manifested the intention of a more violent action”, he pointed out. According to the secretary, the march from the camp to Praça dos Três Poderes took more than an hour and a half, which would be more than enough time for security to be reinforced.
“There were 555 men mobilized that day for the central area and Esplanada, in an ordinary Military Police routine. But looking at the images, the impression was that there were not 150 men. This number does not correspond to the intelligence alert”, he revealed.
In addition, the few police officers who carried out containment in the area in front of the National Congress, at the height of Alameda dos Estados, were students of the Military Police training course, with little experience in the field. At that moment, the scammers raise the protection railings at the same time, which suggests, according to Cappelli, exactly a coordinated invasion action.
“Everyone lifts (the railings) at the same time. There is a coordinated movement, this draws a lot of attention. There were railings placed improperly. We had, without adequate protection, the exoskeleton, students of the PMDF training course, with railings placed in a fragile way. This made it very easy for the line to be broken”, he observed.
The then general commander of the PMDF, Fábio Augusto Vieira, who is also in prison, would have lost total command of the corporation on that day, according to the federal intervenor.
“The commander was in the field, acted individually, but lost command and the ability to command the troops throughout the 8th. He made appeals that were ignored and were not heeded,” stated Cappelli.
Federal intervention in the area of public security in the DF will end on the 31st. As of February, the command of the Secretariat of Public Security in the country’s capital will be Federal Police Chief Sandro Avelar, who was announced this week. During the press conference for the presentation of the intervention report, Avelar assured that he will continue with the investigations. “I want to reinforce that the investigations will follow their course and reinforce that it is a priority activity so that we can clarify this fact”.
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Source: BdF Distrito Federal
Editing: Flavia Quirino
