Brazil arrests five suspects in alleged Lula assassination plot

Four G20 security guards reportedly among those arrested after murder bid mentioned for first time as part of coup probe.

Five people have been arrested in Brazil for their suspected involvement in an alleged attempt to assassinate then President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his vice president in December 2022, according to police.

The police said in a statement on Tuesday that most of those investigated in the alleged coup attempt are military personnel with special forces training.

“A detailed operational plan called ‘Green and Yellow Dagger’ was identified, which would be executed on December 15, 2022, aimed at the murder of the elected candidates for president and vice president,” the statement said, in an apparent reference to the colours of the Brazilian flag.

This was the first time in the alleged coup attempt investigation that federal police have mentioned a plot to kill Lula and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin.

Federal police officers carried out five arrest warrants on Tuesday, the police said without providing any names.

The four “were arrested in Rio [de Janeiro], where they were participating in the security operation for the G20 leaders meeting” on Monday, a federal police source told the AFP news agency, adding that a police officer was also taken into custody.

Jair Bolsonaro

Lula won the presidential election in October 2022, defeating the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, and took office in January last year.

Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia on January 8 last year. Several investigations have been opened into those events as well as other alleged plots to prevent Lula from taking office.

A federal police investigation will conclude that Bolsonaro conspired to engineer the attempted coup after he lost the election, a source with direct knowledge of the investigations told the Reuters news agency in October. The probe is expected to finish its work this month.

The Brazilian army monitored the federal operation against the coup plotters, which was carried out in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Goias, Amazonas and the Federal District.

The police said the suspects under investigation had planned for an “Institutional Crisis Management Office” to be installed to manage problems arising from the coup.

They also planned to seize and kill a Supreme Court justice if they succeeded, police said without naming the judge.