Jail for the coup plotters, no amnesty!
By Verónica O’Kelly
Automatic translation made by AI.
The Supreme Court sentenced Bolsonaro to 27 years and 3 months in prison for the five crimes of which he was accused: coup d’état; attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law; armed criminal organization; qualified damage to federal property; and deterioration of listed property. The bulk of the sentence, 24 years and 9 months, is in a closed regime. The rest, 2 and a half years, is in a lighter regime (semi-open or open). As the sentence exceeds 8 years, he will have to start in a closed prison.
In addition to Bolsonaro, seven other coup plotters were sentenced: Alexandre Ramagem, former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) and federal deputy, sentenced to 16 years, 1 month and 15 days in prison; Almir Garnier, former commander of the Navy, 24 years in prison; Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice and former Secretary of Security of the Federal District, 24 years in prison; Augusto Heleno, former Minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet, 21 years, of which 18 years and 11 months in prison and 2 years and 1 month in detention (semi-open or open regime); Mauro Cid, former presidential aide and whistleblower in the coup plot, up to 2 years in prison in an open regime, due to his plea bargain; Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, former Minister of Defense, 19 years in prison; Walter Souza Braga Netto, former Minister of the Civil House, 26 years, including 24 years in prison and 2 years in detention.
Unfortunately, the justice system and the bourgeois institutions have refused to convict Bolsonaro of the crime of murdering thousands of people who were victims of his neglect, abandonment, corruption, denialism and negligence during the Covid-19 pandemic, so we continue to demand justice for all those killed and we will not stop fighting to convict him and all those responsible for this. Even so, today we celebrate the conviction of the 8 coup plotters and we will continue to mobilize to ensure that the sentences are carried out, against any attempt at impunity. No amnesty for the coup plotters!
The Supreme Court and the role of bourgeois justice
Bolsonaro tried to carry out a coup, but most of the Brazilian people didn’t follow him. It is for this reason, and for no other, that the STF is handing down this historic sentence.
We revolutionaries have no confidence in bourgeois justice. We are well aware that it is the tool of the state at the service of repression to guarantee the exploitation and oppression with which the capitalist system sustains itself. That’s why we’re celebrating today, but we warn you that it’s not justice that has condemned Bolsonaro and his coup gang, it’s the majority of the Brazilian people who don’t support dictatorships and are willing to throw those who try any coup adventure or against the democratic rights they’ve won into the dustbin of history.
Keep mobilizing, against impunity and in defense of our rights!
At this time, when bourgeois sectors are betting on extreme right-wing figures or parties to deepen exploitation and thus recover their profits in a dynamic of endless crisis, we need to be on our guard. They know very well that only repression can get them what they want. That’s why there will still be attempts to amnesty Bolsonaro and the coup plotters, reduce sentences or any other maneuver to maintain impunity.
We need to be firm, on the streets and organizing in our workplaces, in our studies and in our neighborhoods. The defense of our rights is constant and today more than ever we need to maintain the unitary mobilization against any anti-democratic attack that comes our way.
In the meantime, it is urgent to build the unity of the left, which is not deluded by the siren songs of bourgeois democracy and is building an independent left-wing, anti-capitalist and socialist political alternative. We, the Socialist Revolution and the ISL, are militating for this goal and we invite you to join us!
