Brazil Police Target More Bolsonaro Allies in New Probe

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s federal police launched another operation targeting allies of President Jair Bolsonaro, a move that could add tensions to an already strained relationship between powers.

Under orders of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, police carried out 21 search and seizure warrants in the states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Santa Catarina as well as the Federal District, where the capital of Brasilia is located. The police’s press statement did not reveal names of the people investigated.

G1 website said the probe targeted two businessmen connected with the political party Bolsonaro has been trying to create, Alliance for Brazil. Lower house deputy Daniel Silveira, another supporter of the President’s, said on a Twitter post that the police raided his apartment.

Some of the targets of Tuesday’s search warrants were already being investigated as part of a top court-mandated probe into the spread fake news. Justice Moraes is also in charge of that probe, which Bolsonaro has described as an attack on free speech. Just last night, the President criticized Moraes in an interview with a local TV station, calling his decisions a “brutal interference” with the president’s office.

Bolsonaro and the Supreme Court have been at odds on several matters, particularly after the court backed restrictive measures by governors to slow the spread of the coronavirus, against the president’s push to reopen the economy.

Over the weekend, Bolsonaro replied to a Top Court decision that the armed forces are an institution of the Brazilian state, not the government of the day by saying “The armed forces in Brazil do not follow absurd orders, such as seizure of power.” He added that “Nor do they accept attempts to seize power by another branch of the republic, contrary to laws, or due to political judgment.”

Fireworks, Covid

On Monday, police arrested one of the leaders of a pro-Bolsonaro group which has set up camp and been making demonstrations in front of the Supreme Court in Brasilia. Over the weekend, the group threw fireworks at the Court’s building, prompting several of the Justices to react on social media to what was seen as an attack on the institution.

Moraes said on a Twitter post the court “would never bow to cowardly aggressions from criminal organizations financed by anti-democratic groups.”

In separate investigations, police also carried out search and seizure orders in the northeast, targeting the state of Pernambuco and its capital Recife. Those probes target alleged irregularities in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

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