Brazilian authorities on Thursday they ordered the seizure of the passport of the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro: in concrete terms it means that he will not be able to go abroad, but it is a fact that could have even more serious consequences, given that the police usually seize a person’s passport to prevent him from being able to escape possible arrest. It does not mean that the police are already thinking of arresting Bolsonaro, but that as a suspect they want to force him to stay in Brazil to face the charges against him. Bolsonaro made it known through his spokesman that he will hand him over.
The seizure of the passport is the consequence of a police investigation into the existence of an alleged criminal organization to try to overturn the result of the Brazilian elections in October 2022. Bolsonaro had lost the run-off for the presidential elections against Luiz Inácio Lula by Silva (known simply as Lula), and a few months later thousands of his supporters stormed state institutions in the capital Brasilia. Bolsonaro then left Brazil and remained abroad for a long time.
The police said in a statement that they were investigating the existence of a network of people who attempted a “coup d’état, with the support of soldiers with the knowledge and tactics of special forces.” The investigation also involved dozens of other people, whose identities the police did not reveal: second Reuters among these would be some of Bolsonaro’s closest allies, who would have tried to sow distrust in Brazil’s voting system and who would have plotted to overturn the results of the vote. Some of the people under investigation have been arrested.