São Paulo (AP) – Lieutenant Colonel Mauro West Germany arrived at the Brazilian Supreme Court on Tuesday to testify against his former ally, former Defense Secretary General Walter Braga Nietto, who did not pay tribute to senior officials.
It is a deviant military agreement that highlights how the country’s once-popular military forces have been divided and harassed by scandals as Brazil attempts to explode cases in which the top military officer is accused of helping former President Jair Bolsonaro attempt to remain in power after losing the election.
Analysts say the appearance of two men in the civil court marks a historic difference from the impunitive senior military officers enjoyed since the country’s two decades of military domination.
“Putting the colonel on a general level shows that all defendants are equal,” said Lucas Figueiredo, author of several books on Brazil’s dictatorship. “The truth will prevail.”
Coup accusations
CID, a former assistant training camp in Bolsonaro, signed a plea deal in cooperation with the authorities, has testified that Braga Netto attended a meeting in November 2022, during which military officials discussed plans to stop the current president, Luiz Inácioinácioinácioinácioinácioinácioinácioinácioináciolula lula da Silva.
Braga Netto is a close ally of Bolsonaro, who also served as chairman of the former president and his 2022 campaign partner.
The officers are on trial with Bolsonro, several other officials and several civilians. They face five charges, including attempts to engage in coups, involvement in armed criminal organizations, attempts to abolish democratic rule of law, and exacerbate the degradation of damage and listed legacy.
A verdict is expected to be made by the end of 2025.
CID said that during the days when Bolsonaro lost to Lula, he was summoned to Braga Netto’s office and handed over a bag of cash to Bolsonaro’s supporters who camped outside the military headquarters. Braga Netto rejected the account and called CID a traitor.
The two were called to the Supreme Court on Tuesday for a confrontation, a step in Brazil’s legal process where both judges and both sides can interrogate witnesses about the differences in their testimony.
The exam was ordered by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who was chair of the coup investigation, and did not provide further details about the decision. Brazilian law allows closing hearings when it comes to national security or in-depth personal matters.
Braga Netto arrived at the court in the country’s capital Brasilia from his prison cell in Rio de Janeiro, and has been detained since December for obstructing the investigation.
A Supreme Court staffer observed the testimony and told the Associated Press that both Braga Netto and CID mostly insisted on a contradictory version of their incident and avoided views of each other despite opposing each other.
Staff spoke on anonymous because they did not have the right to introduce them to the media.
Braga Netto’s lawyer José Luis Oliveira said that during the intense exchange, the former defense secretary hit back at CID as a “scammer”.
Legal experts and officials say the decision of Moras’ decision to call on both sides to inquire shows the judge’s lack of confidence in their testimony.
Brazil’s military has long been in a state of guilt and punishment
The fact that these two men appeared completely in the civil court is that senior Brazilian officials enjoyed decades of impunity.
Unlike neighboring Argentina and Chile, no one in Brazil was sent to prison for allegations related to the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Despite serious legal charges, Bolsenro remains the face of the country opposes President Lula.
The last Brazilian general to be sentenced to jail was Argemiro de Assis Brasil, who was arrested in 1964 for opposing a coup in which the military seized power.
Since the start of the lawsuit, members of the military agency have claimed that the Supreme Court’s trial was an embarrassment for the armed forces.
“This kind of doubt did not help the armed forces,” said General Roberto Peternelli, a former MP. “From my point of view, it ended up hurting the country.”
The defendants tried to avoid civilian courts by seeking trials in the country’s superior military courts, where legal experts say they are more likely to feel sympathy.
The military court only handles dozens of cases each year and rejects them.
“Members of the military court understand that although they are committed by military personnel, these are not military crimes,” said Unicuritiba’s law professor Alexandre Knopfholz.
Millions of Brazilians have seen the case air on TV over the past two years, documents by federal police arresting suspects and catching court testimony.
Still, some experts suspect that CID and Braga Netto will eventually be sentenced to full sentences in prison, even if they are found guilty.
“This is the middle of the investigation. We should not forget that every coup military figure in Brazil’s history has been pardoned,” said Fabio Victor, author of a book on the link between military and politics after Brazil’s transition to democracy in 1985.
But he admitted: “The fact that the general has become a defendant in an attempted coup does show some evolution.”
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Hughes reported on Rio de Janeiro.
