Election ‘Correction’ Plan Found At Anderson Torres Home
In a paper discovered at his residence, Brazil‘s former minister of justice Anderson Torres suggested taking immediate action to “fix” the results of the presidential election that Jair Bolsonaro, his then-boss, lost in October.
Police detectives discovered the document at the residence of former minister who is wanted by the Supreme Court for allegedly “colluding” with protesters who overthrew Brasilia’s government over the weekend.
Torres was in charge of security for Brasilia, the scene of the riots on Sunday, while President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist adversary of Bolsonaro, was in charge of the country’s new administration.
He was later let go.
The draft calls for a “state of defense” for the Superior Electoral Court and was published late Thursday in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper.
“The preservation and urgent restoration of the transparency and correction of the 2022 presidential electoral process,” it said as the goal.
The paper also discusses the formation of an election “regulatory commission” made up of eight representatives from the military ministry and nine other people, which would take over the TSE’s duties of overseeing elections.
The document is unsigned and undated, although Bolsonaro’s name is at the bottom.
In light of ongoing investigations, the Federal Police declined to speak to AFP on the issue.
The document, according to Anderson Torres, who has lived in the United States since before the riots, was “possibly” a part of a stack of other papers at his house that were going to be thrown out.
In order to “feed false narratives” about him, he continued, the draft’s contents had been taken “out of context.”
On Sunday, thousands of so-called “bolsonaristas” broke into the White House, the Supreme Court, and Congress in the nation’s capital. Along the way, they vandalized valuable works of art, broke windows, and left graffiti inscriptions asking for a military takeover.
Both Jair Bolsonaro and Anderson Torres have denied any connection.
Years ago, Bolsonaro signaled he would not accept defeat in the October 30 runoff against Lula and sought to put doubt on the validity of Brazil’s much praised electoral system.
He fled the country for the United States two days before his successor’s inauguration and never acknowledged Lula’s victory in public.
Anderson Torres is anticipated to return to the nation soon to face the charges leveled against him.
