Argentine justice system orders arrest of 61 Brazilians over 2023 coup

Argentina’s justice system has ordered the arrest of 61 Brazilians sentenced to home imprisonment in connection with last year’s attempted coup in Brasília, a judicial source told AFP on Friday.

The source said that the order issued by Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas was requested by the Brazilian Supreme Court to arrest Brazilian citizens who were the subject of an extradition request and sentenced to prison in Argentina.

A week after leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office on January 1, 2023, Brazilian police arrested hundreds of people suspected of involvement in the attack on three seats of state forces in Brazil. former president Jair Bolsonaro on the right.

On June 10 this year, Brazil said it had asked for help from Argentina to locate 140 fugitives convicted of the coup.

“Two people have already been detained,” a judicial source said on Friday. The rest “no matter where they are detected or located in Argentina, they will be detained and presented to the court to begin the extradition process.”

The extradition decision can be appealed before the Supreme Court, and once the judicial process is over, “the procedure is forwarded to the Executive Branch, which has a purely political power to accept extradition or grant refugee status or make any other application and thus prevent extradition,” he added.


Argentinian President Javier Milei distanced himself from Lula in favor of Bolsonaro.


In July, Milei rejected the Mercosur summit in Asunción; this summit was heavily criticized by their counterparts in Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil, Argentina’s main trading partner in the region. Parallel to the presidents’ meeting, Milei had traveled to Brazil to attend a conservative forum with Bolsonaro.


The Argentinian government changed its refugee status law in October, stopping the provision of this aid to foreigners accused or convicted in their country.


Milei will go to the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on November 18 and 19.

Two arrests

The two people arrested so far are 47-year-old Joelton Gusmão de Oliveira and 34-year-old Rodrigo De Freitas Moro.


A police statement at the time stated that Gusmão, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison, was arrested on Thursday after police officers on patrol in the city of La Plata, 60 kilometers east of Buenos Aires, saw “a man acting suspiciously.” gives more details of the episode.


Brazilian portal UOL He reported that he was caught while trying to renew his refugee status at the immigration office.


De Fretias, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison, was arrested in La Plata on Friday “when he went to carry out immigration procedures”, according to the information provided by the Buenos Aires provincial police.


The police report stated that both of them were convicted of attempted coup, serious damage, destruction of assets, armed criminal organization and violent destruction of the democratic rule of law.


On January 8 last year, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the presidential palace, Congressional headquarters and the Supreme Court, demanding Armed Forces intervention to remove Lula from office and denouncing alleged election fraud.

– TIMES/AFP

Written by: Tomás Viola and Facundo Fernández Barrio, AFP