Brazil: Army and Supreme Court Plotted To Keep Lula Imprisoned

The Brazilian Army plotted with the Supreme Court to prevent the socialist leader Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva from leaving prison and challenging Jair Bolsonaro for the presidency back in 2018, the Army's former head Eduardo Villas-Boas revealed on Thursday.

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According to the 13-hour testimony,  the Army threatened the Supreme Court to reject a habeas corpus appeal to free Lula. " We had an increase in demands for military intervention. It was very prudent to prevent them because later we would be employed to contain them," the former official said. 

"Internally, we act because of the porosity of our internal public, all immersed in society. They shared similar anxiety," Boas explained. This as the Army's former head recalled that there was a growing concern amid the business sector and the Army about a possible liberation of Lula that could lead to a victory on the elections.

Nonetheless, in 2018, ahead of the habeas corpus trial, the former official published a warning about liberation without explicitly mentioning the  Supreme Court. Boas recognized that  the text she shared on Twitter was submitted to his staff and then "to the military area chiefs (throughout the country) before its publication." Later, the retired general became a presidential adviser to the far-right president Jair Bosonaro.