#augusto heleno

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil’s police investigate former President Bolsonaro’s allies over alleged coup attempt

Brazilian police are investigating several top allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly trying to overturn the results of the 2022 election and searched their homes and offices Thursday.

Bolsonaro was not himself the target of a search but was ordered to forfeit his passport, an officer with knowledge of the operation told The Associated Press. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to publicly comment on the case.

The searches targeted among others Bolsonaro’s 2022 running mate Gen. Walter Braga Netto, former adviser Gen. Augusto Heleno, former Justice Minister Anderson Torres and the head of his political party, Valdemar Costa Neto, the officer said.

A police statement did not confirm the identities of those targeted in the searches but said they were carrying out 33 searches and seeking four arrests in eight states and the Federal District of Brasilia, the country’s capital. The probe was connected to an alleged criminal organization that “acted to attempt a coup d’etat” that would have kept Bolsonaro in power after his election defeat, the statement said.

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[the-penandpaper]

Look at this face. This man,  Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira, better known by the people of Haiti as the “Butcher of Cite Soleil”. “The Butcher”, Brazilian soldiers and the UN massacred hundreds of Haitian in 2005 on a mission to de-stabilize Haiti. ‘The Butcher of Cite Soleil’ has recently been rewarded for his mass murder of Haitians. In 2019, he was gifted the position of Defense Minister of Brazil.

On April 4, 2005 Wilme gave an interview with New York's Haitian radio station Lakou in which he described MINUSTAH's attacks on the city:

“ MINUSTAH  (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) has been shooting tear gas on the people. There are children who have died from the gas and some people inside churches have been shot. The Red Cross was with us. The Red Cross was just here and might have just gone on to pick up more children and adults who have gotten shot. The Red Cross is the only one helping us. The MINUSTAH soldiers remain hidden in their tanks and just aim their guns and shoot the people. They shoot people selling in the streets. They shoot people just walking in the streets. They shoot people sitting and selling in the marketplace.”

Source

Many benefit off the genocide and exploitation of Haiti and the global south. It’s not enough to disagree with heinous acts such as these. Now is the time to become informed and get involved.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

So, in Brazilian democracy and politics, former Bolsonaro supporter Sara Winter has told in an interview that retired Armed Forces General Augusto Heleno, current minister of the Security Cabinet, as well as president Jair Bolsonaro and many of his allies in Congress, personally coached her and her far-right militant group 300 For Brazil in anti-democratic manifestations and attacks on the press, the Supreme Federal Court, and then-president of Deputies’ Chamber Rodrigo Maia.

[Image description: Sara Winter.]

She also mentioned feputies Daniel Silveira (Brazilian Labour Party), Sergeant Fahur (Social Liberal Party), Bia Kicis (Social Liberal Party), and especially Carla Zambelli (Social Liberal Party) as strongly present in organization of the group’s acts.

For example, Zambelli once asked the group to protest against Rodrigo Maia. Kicis taught them how to stir the media’s attention, provided advisor Evandro Araújo, and assigned a lawyer from her office to follow up on meetings with the Federal District's Security Secretariat. General Heleno summoned Winter to the Presidential Palace itself to ask her to redirect forces against the Supreme Federal Court.

Sara Winter also said that it’s common for pro-Bolsonaro deputies to use public funds in schemes to create social media bots and fake profiles, although those funds are supposed to be used in parliamentary amendments.

She said that militias and embezzlement of salaries of politicians’ advisors, both topics in which the president and his sons are implicated, are “forbidden” among bolsonarist militants. She also said that Carlos and Eduardo Bolsonaro, sons of the president, either co-opt or destroy any right-wing figure getting increased attention.

Sara says that when she announced in January that she would reveal all she knew about the bolsonarismo movement, the Presidential Palace “freaked out” and called for an emergency ministerial meeting.

She claims to fear for her safety, whether from the left or from the government and its supporters, and plans to move to Mexico with her son.

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[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil suspends mining exploration permits in Indigenous areas in the Amazon

[Image description: landscape of Cabeça do Cachorro: The Sleeping Beauty ridge near São Gabriel da Cachoeira.]

The Chief Minister of Brazil’s Institutional Security Cabinet of the Presidency, Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, has overturned his own orders after being criticized for granting mining exploration permits in a protected area of the Amazon, near the border with Colombia and Venezuela.

The cancellation of the seven permits granted by Ribeiro, a close ally of President Jair Bolsonaro, was published this week in the official gazette Diário Oficial.

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In the new decree, the minister acknowledges that the authorizations he granted were questioned by the three government agencies, namely the National Mining Agency (ANM), the Indigenous National Foundation (Funai) and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio).

The decision was also condemned by NGOs and First nations groups such as the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Río Negro.

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[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil Minister Allows Mining in Preserved Areas of the Amazon

Companies were allowed to explore mining in border regions

[Image description: Augusto Heleno.]

General Augusto Heleno, minister of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) of the Presidency, authorized the advancement of seven gold exploitation projects in a preserved area of ​​the Amazon.

Heleno is the executive secretary of the Defense Council, a body that serves to assist the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, in matters of sovereignty and defense. It is up to the GSI minister to say yes or no to proposals for mining along the border.

With projects submitted by the National Mining Agency, the general allowed mining in São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM).

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[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Environmentalists urge UN to condemn Brazil’s spying at climate talks

Brazilian campaigners said tolerating the Bolsonaro administration’s spying at climate talks would set “a grisly precedent” and called on the UN to prevent future incidents

Brazilian environmentalists and opposition politicans have urged UN Climate Change to condemn the Brazilian government for sending spies to the 2019 climate talks in Madrid.

Over 160 non-governmental organisations and opposition federal deputies and senators said the Brazilian government had “violate[d] delegates’ security and safety within UN premises” and compromised their privacy, freedom of thought and speech and immunity. If tolerated, this could set “a grisly precedent”, they warned.

Last month, the Estadao newspaper revealed that Brazil’s intelligence agency Abin sent four agents to the talks disguised as “analysts”. One analyst told the newspaper they were there to monitor criticism of the Bolsonaro administration’s policy of removing environmental protections from the Amazon rainforest.

Three Brazilian sources who were at the talks told Climate Home that the spies had intimidated Brazil’s own delegates, so that they were too scared to be seen talking to civil society. The letter says these delegates included federal scientists and members of parliament.

After the spying was revealed, Brazilian General Augusto Heleno who oversees Abin, claimed the spy agency had a legal right to monitor COP climate talks. He said Abin’s agents were there to tackle “sordid and lying international campaigns” supported by “bad Brazilians, with the objective of harming Brazil”.

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[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil government furious at bid to seize Bolsonaro's phone 

President Jair Bolsonaro's government warned Friday (May 22) that Brazil's "national security" would be at risk if investigators granted a request to seize the far-right leader's cell phone in an obstruction of justice investigation.

The request to seize Bolsonaro's phone and that of his son Carlos was made by opposition parties in Congress, part of a probe into allegations by former justice minister Sergio Moro that the president tried to interfere in federal police investigations.

The probe, which could see Bolsonaro put on trial or even impeached, comes as the president faces growing disapproval ratings 18 months into his term and criticism over his downplaying of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now claimed more than 20,000 lives in Brazil.

Supreme Court Justice Celso de Mello, who is in charge of the probe, passed the phone seizure request on to the attorney general's office, which will have the final say in the matter.

Bolsonaro's government quickly hit back, furiously condemning what it called "unacceptable interference in the executive branch, the president's privacy and the country's institutional security."

"This would have unforeseeable consequences for national stability," said the statement, which was signed by National Security Minister Augusto Heleno.

The ominous tone from Heleno, a powerful retired army general, was widely taken as a threat in a country still scarred by the legacy of a brutal military regime that seized power in 1964 and ruled until 1985.

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[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Outrage as Jair Bolsonaro appears to endorse Brazil anti-democracy protests

Far-right demonstrations called for 15 March

Jair Bolsonaro’s apparent endorsement of protests designed to cow Brazil’s democratic institutions has sparked outrage across the political spectrum with one lawmaker warning of a return to the dark days of dictatorship if the demonstrations are not opposed.

Hardcore supporters of Brazil’s far-right president are planning nationwide protests on 15 March and have been flooding social media with propaganda videos and fliers attacking members of Congress – and even proposing a return to military rule under Bolsonaro.

One advert for the #SomosTodosBolsonaro (We’re all Bolsonaro) rallies urges Bolsonaristas to pile pressure on lawmakers by attending what it calls “Fuck You Day”.

Bolsonaro, a notorious admirer of authoritarian rulers such as the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, appeared to sanction the protests this week, sharing one such video with friends and associates on his personal WhatsApp account.

In the video Bolsonaro followers are told: “He is fighting the corrupt and murderous left for us. He endures smears and lies because he’s doing his best for us … Let’s show that we support BOLSONARO and reject the enemies of Brazil.”

Bolsonaro’s promotion of the anti-democratic mobilization – which some suspect is designed to undermine or intimidate Congress ahead of a potential attempt to impeach him – sparked fury in a country that only emerged from two decades of dictatorship in 1985.

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Addition by the mod: the “Fuck It/You Day” is named after chief minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet General Augusto Heleno’s quote in a flag raising ceremony: "We can't accept these guys [Congress] blackmailing us all the time. Fuck it."