Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva was days away from taking office for his third term as the Brazilian president when soldiers from a special operations unit allegedly discussed the best way to kill him \u2013 possibly through poisoning or administering drugs that would trigger \u201corgan failure\u201d.<\/p>\n
Investigators would later conclude that the supposed plan to assassinate the president-elect<\/a>, his vice-president and a supreme court justice was one of many strands of a wider plot<\/a> designed to keep the far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro<\/a> in power.<\/p>\n At the end of 2022, Lula<\/a> had just won the elections<\/a> and was staying at a hotel in the capital, Bras\u00edlia, while a police officer leaked details of his security apparatus to the special ops.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, already responsible for the main cases against Bolsonaro, was allegedly targeted by heavily armed soldiers who took up positions near his home, awaiting the final order to kill him.<\/p>\n Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva in Bras\u00edlia on 28 August 2025. Photograph: Evaristo Sa\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n According to the federal police and Brazil\u2019s attorney general, the assassination plan was only aborted because a court session was delayed \u2013 and, more importantly, the commanders of the armed forces refused to endorse Bolsonaro\u2019s coup plot.<\/p>\n The former president and seven of his closest allies \u2013 including high-ranking military officers \u2013 are now awaiting judgment on charges of attempting a coup to overturn the 2022 elections<\/a>. They could face sentences of 43 years.<\/p>\n A verdict is expected next week, and Bolsonaro\u2019s conviction is considered highly likely.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been an attempt at a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat against the institutions of democracy, in pursuit of a dictatorship,\u201d said Moraes at the trial\u2019s opening. \u201cBut the institutions have shown their strength and resilience,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest on charges of attempting to coerce judges, denies all the accusations. Suffering from bouts of hiccups and vomiting<\/a>, he did not request permission to attend the trial in court.<\/p>\n Paulo Gonet, the attorney general, wrote in his final pre-trial arguments that \u201cBolsonaro is the leader of the criminal organisation\u201d that attempted the coup, \u201cas the chief strategist, main beneficiary and author of the gravest acts aimed at breaking the democratic rule of law\u201d.<\/p>\n Investigators say the plan began even before the election, with an attempt to discredit Brazil\u2019s electronic voting system<\/a>.<\/p>\n Justice Alexandre de Moraes attends the trial in Bras\u00edlia on 3 September 2025. Photograph: Andr\u00e9 Borges\/EPA<\/p>\n They believe Bolsonaro aimed to win at the ballot box \u2013 at any cost, including through an unprecedented package of bonuses<\/a> widely seen as indirect vote-buying<\/a> \u2013 but, if that did not work, to claim the election had been stolen.<\/p>\n The first round came, and Bolsonaro lost<\/a>. On the day of the runoff, the federal highway police, under Bolsonaro\u2019s security minister, carried out operations close to cities where Lula had performed strongly, in what investigators say was an effort to suppress voter turnout<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the tightest result in Brazilian electoral history, Lula won by 50.9% to 49.1%<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the attorney general, this marked the next phase of the attempted coup, when, while refusing to acknowledge his electoral defeat<\/a>, Bolsonaro and his allies reportedly began devising ways to cling to power.<\/p>\n In what was apparently a scattergun attempt to see what might stick, the plan involved multiple fronts, including the alleged murderous plot \u2013 found on a Word document on a device belonging Gen Mario Fernandes, the president\u2019s deputy chief of staff. In testimony he said it was merely a \u201cscenario study\u201d that he had written up.<\/p>\n Bolsonaro is also alleged to have attended meetings in which he discussed issuing decrees to enable him to cling on to power. In testimony last June, the former paratrooper admitted joining discussions on \u201calternative ways\u201d to remain in office<\/a>, but argued they did not amount to an attempted coup.<\/p>\n In his opening statement last Tuesday, Gonet said<\/a>: \u201cWhen the president and the defence minister summon the military leadership to present a document formalising a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat, the criminal process is already under way.\u201d<\/p>\n While Bolsonaro discussed his \u201calternative ways\u201d, hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters camped outside army buildings across the country, calling for a coup<\/a> \u2013 a movement investigators say was organised by figures such as Fernandes.<\/p>\n Investigators say the coup was only averted because, despite pressure from Bolsonaro, the heads of the army and the air force \u2013 refused to join, leaving the then navy chief, Adm Almir Garnier Santos, isolated. He is on trial alongside Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n With all previous initiatives having failed, the soon-to-be former president refused to take part in the handover and instead flew to the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n A week after Lula was sworn in, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters who had been camped outside the army in Bras\u00edlia ransacked the presidential palace, congress and supreme court on 8 January<\/a>. For investigators, it was the culmination of a plan that had been in motion since 2021.<\/p>\n Although police found no direct order from Bolsonaro to the rioters, investigators argue he spent months inciting his supporters<\/a>, knew the riot would happen and \u201cleft the country to avoid a possible arrest and to await the outcome of the coup acts of 8 January\u201d.<\/p>\n Bolsonaro supporters storm the national congress building in Bras\u00edlia on 8 January 2023. Photograph: Eraldo Peres\/AP<\/p>\n