Lula affirms that the Intelligence service failed to prevent an attempted coup in Brazil

MADRID, 19 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has affirmed this Wednesday that the country's intelligence service would have failed on January 8, by not preventing the attempted coup by supporters of former leader Jair Bolsonaro.

"The truth is that none of this intelligence -- the Army, the Institutional Security Office (GSI) -- served to warn the president, to say that this could have happened," he declared in an interview with GloboNews.

"We made a mistake, I would say an elementary one: my intelligence did not exist," Lula reiterated, explaining that the information he had was that no more buses would enter Brasilia.

The Brazilian president has affirmed that "if he had known on Friday that 8,000 people would come", he would not have left Brasilia, since he was in Araraquara, Sao Paulo, when the assault on the institutions occurred, on a visit in solidarity with the victims of the storms.

"I left because everything was calm. Even because we were still experiencing the joy of taking office," Lula assured.

Lula, who has assured that as soon as he heard the news he went to the Araraquara City Hall to contact the Ministry of Institutional Security, has reiterated that the assailants entered through the main door of the Palace.

"It was not a political illiterate who invaded this place. They were people who prepared this for a long time. They did not have the courage to do anything during the inauguration," he said.

"I got the impression that it was the beginning of a coup. I even had the impression that the people were following the order and guidance that Bolsonaro gave for a long time," Lula said.

Likewise, he has criticized the former president's decision to remain silent after losing the presidential elections, as well as his departure from the country to the United States, without participating in the inauguration ceremony.

"As if he was fleeing for fear of something and his silence after the event, he gave me the impression that he knew everything that was happening, that he had a lot to do with what was happening," he said, indicating that "Bolsonaro was possibly expecting return to Brazil in the glory of a coup d'état".

He has also criticized the detained former minister Anderson Torres, who was also Secretary of Security for the Federal District, warning that "all the (military) that we find who have participated in the events will be punished": "They will answer before the law," he has settled.

Despite this, Lula has stressed the need to avoid the politicization of the Army. "I don't want to get into trouble with the Force (Navy), nor do they get into trouble with me: I want us to return to normality," he asserted, recalling that the military have to "fulfill their duty" and "not engage in politics ".