Brazilian police on Tuesday arrested five people, including a member of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, suspected of involvement in an alleged plan to kill then president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his vice-president in 2022 days before they took office, police said.
Earlier reports stated that among the four people arrested on Tuesday were four soldiers guarding the ongoing G20 summit.
Federal police sources aide said those arrested “were participating in the security operation for the G20.”
But the military said in a statement: “These soldiers were not part of the operation of maintaining order at the G20 summit.”
The arrests marked the first time during the investigation that federal police mentioned a plot to kill Lula and Geraldo Alckmin, his choice for vice-president, and stage a coup to stop him returning to power.
Most of those investigated are military personnel with Special Forces training, the police said in a statement.