Salutations, PauLOLt. Col. Mauro Cid did not salute the senior officer when he came at Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday to testify against his erstwhile ally, former Defense Minister Gen. Walter Braga Netto.
As Brazil tries an explosive case in which top military officers are accused of helping former President Jair Bolsonaro attempt a coup to stay in power after losing an election, it was a departure from military protocol that highlighted how the once highly popular military has been split and embroiled in scandal.
The two men’s presence in a civilian court, according to analysts, was a historic break from the impunity that senior military leaders have had since the nation was ruled by the military for 20 years.
According to Lucas Figueiredo, author of multiple books about the dictatorship in Brazil, pitting a colonel against a general levels the playing field and sends a message that all defendants are treated equally by the legal system. “The truth will win out.
Charges of a coup
Cid, a former Bolsonaro aide-de-camp who agreed to collaborate with investigators in exchange for a plea deal, has already claimed that Braga Netto attended a November 2022 meeting when military officers discussed plans to prevent current President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva from assuming office.
Bolsonaro’s close buddy Braga Netto was the former president’s chief of staff and his running mate in 2022.
Along with Bolsonaro, a number of other police, and a few civilians, the cops are on trial. Involvement in an armed criminal group, attempted violent eradication of the democratic rule of law, aggravated damage, and degrading listed heritage are among the five counts against them.
The end of 2025 is when a verdict is anticipated.
Cid claims that he was summoned to Braga Netto’s office in the days following Bolsonaro’s defeat by Lula and given a bag of cash to give to Bolsonaro supporters gathered outside the military headquarters. Cid is referred to as a traitor by Braga Netto, who rejects the narrative.
On Tuesday, the two men were called to the Supreme Court for a confrontation, which is a stage in Brazilian legal proceedings where witnesses can be questioned by the court and both sides over inconsistencies in their statements.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Court, who chairs the coup investigation, ordered the examination to be held behind closed doors and withheld more information regarding the ruling. Closed court hearings are permitted by Brazilian law in cases involving very private or national security issues.
Braga Netto, who has been in custody since December for hindering investigations, came at the court in Brasilia, the nation’s capital, from his detention cell.
Despite sitting across from one other, Braga Netto and Cid largely held to their conflicting accounts of what happened and didn’t even look at each other, a Supreme Court staffer who watched the testimony told The Associated Press.
Since the staff member was not authorized to brief the media, they talked on condition of anonymity.
According to Braga Netto’s attorney, Jos Luis Oliveira, the former defense minister retorted angrily that Cid was a liar.
Legal experts and officials argued that Moraes’ choice to bring both men for interrogation simultaneously showed that the court did not trust their testimony.
For many years, Brazil’s military has operated with impunity.
The two men’s appearance in a civilian court was a departure from the decades-long impunity that Brazilian senior officers had enjoyed.
Unlike Argentina and Chile, Brazil’s neighbors, no one has been imprisoned on accusations connected to the military dictatorship that lasted from 1964 to 1985. And Bolsonaro continues to represent the nation’s opposition to President Lula in spite of a maze of grave judicial accusations.
Argemiro de Assis Brasil was the last Brazilian general to be imprisoned; he was detained in 1964 for opposing the military takeover.
Members of the military establishment have maintained that the Supreme Court trial is a disgrace to the military from the start of the proceedings.
According to Gen. Roberto Peternelli, a former legislator with ties to Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, such interrogation is detrimental to the military. In my opinion, it ultimately hurts the nation.
By requesting a trial at the nation’s Superior Military Tribunal, where legal experts say they are more likely to find compassion, the accused attempted to evade civilian court.
The cases were denied by the military court, which hears only a few dozen cases annually.
According to Alexandre Knopfholz, a law professor at UniCuritiba, members of the military court recognized that these are not military offenses even though they were committed by military personnel.
Over the past two years, millions of Brazilians have seen the case unfold on television, from court evidence to raids in which federal police detain individuals and confiscate records.
Even if found guilty, some analysts do not believe that Cid and Braga Netto would receive full prison sentences.
This is the probe’s center. Fabio Victor, author of a book examining the connections between the military and politics during Brazil’s democratic transition in 1985, remarked, “We should not forget that every coup-mongering military man in Brazilian history was pardoned.”
However, he conceded: There is some progression in the fact that generals are now defendants in a coup attempt.
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From Rio de Janeiro, Hughes provided a report.
