Ex-Brazil Air Force Chief Details Refusing Bolsonaro Coup — SkimNews
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- Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, then head of Brazil's air force, refused to accept a draft decree proposing to invalidate Lula's October 2022 election and keep Bolsonaro in power — telling the defence minister "The air force will not take part in this" before standing up and leaving.
- The trial concluded the coup failed mainly because Baptista Júnior and army commander Gen Marco Antônio Freire Gomes refused; navy commander Adm Almir Garnier Santos, defence minister Gen Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, and Bolsonaro's running mate Walter Souza Braga Netto were convicted, with Bolsonaro under house arrest.
- Baptista Júnior's book "I Said No! – An Anti-Coup Bulwark" is set for September 15 publication, roughly two weeks before the first round of the presidential election pitting Lula against far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
- Saying no cost Baptista Júnior "many friendships," with Braga Netto ordering officers to attack him on social media and some military personnel still labelling him a "traitor" or "watermelon" (green uniform outside, communist red within).
- Baptista Júnior was motivated to write the book because polls show roughly one-third of Brazilians still don't believe there was a coup attempt, despite the trial evidence.
- He recounted witnessing army chief Freire Gomes tell Bolsonaro "If you do that, I'll have to arrest you" — an exchange Bolsonaro denied during trial but Baptista Júnior stands by.
- University of Brasília researcher Juliano da Silva Cortinhas warned the risk of a new coup is "even greater today," citing Trump's support for far-right Latin American candidates like Flávio Bolsonaro and the possibility that military plotters could feel emboldened if Trump refuses to recognize a Lula victory.
Why it matters: This first-hand account arrives two weeks before Brazilians vote in a rematch of the 2022 election, with roughly one-third of the public still denying a coup occurred. Cortinhas warned Trump's open backing of Flávio Bolsonaro gives remaining military plotters an external ally Biden's White House withheld — raising the stakes if Lula wins and Trump rejects the result.
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