Argentina issues arrest warrant for rebels in Brazil

According to Brazilian news outlet Globo, Judge Daniel Rafecas said the arrest warrants would apply to “prisoners with a definitive prison sentence.”

In June of this year, Brazilian authorities submitted an extradition request to Argentina for assistance in extraditing more than 140 rebels on trial. However, many in Brazil questioned whether Milei’s government would agree with this view. He is a friend of Argentina’s president, Bolsanaro, and a staunch critic of Lula.

But in October, Argentina revoked the right to political asylum for people convicted of crimes committed in their home country.

And on Friday, an Argentine Federal Court judge ruled that arrest warrants should be issued, taking into account a request from Brazil’s supreme court.

Local media also reported that local police arrested a fugitive on Friday in the city of La Plata, about 60 kilometers from Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires.

The whereabouts of the other rebels are unknown.

The Brazilian government believes the riots in January 2023 were part of a coup attempt by Bolsonaro following his defeat in tightly contested presidential elections last October. He denies any involvement.

But in the weeks following the election, he repeatedly made claims on social media questioning the voting results and the integrity of Brazil’s electronic voting system.

Less than a week after Lula’s inauguration in January 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the Congress building, the Supreme Court, and the Presidential Palace in Brasília.

The arrest warrants came just two days after another attack in Brasilia’s Three Powers Plaza, in which a former political candidate carried out a suicide bombing in front of the Supreme Court.

Police identified the man as Francisco Wanderley Luiz, who ran unsuccessfully for Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party council.