São Paulo, Brazil — Brazilian Congressman Carlos Jordy, an opposition leader and ally of former President Jair Bolsonaro, is under investigation by the Federal Police for his alleged involvement in the January 8, 2023 attacks on Brazil’s government headquarters by Bolsonaro supporters.
The congressman is accused of instructing antidemocratic acts by rioters that day.
The investigation was first disclosed on January 18 when the Federal Police conducted searches of Jordy’s home and office, authorized by the Supreme Court. On the same day, he was questioned and denied the accusations, claiming to be a victim of “political persecution” and labeling the searches as “authoritarian and unfounded.”
Police have arrested around 2,000 people in connection with the attack, most of them low-level protesters who were later released. This most recent phase of the investigation aims to identify the intellectual authors behind the attacks. Those who may have ordered or helped facilitate the over 4,000 Bolsonaro supporters who breached security barriers and stormed Congress, the Supreme Court, and the workplace of the president in the capital of Brasília, causing millions of dollars in damage.
Jordy is suspected of orchestrating antidemocratic acts organized by Carlos Victor de Carvalho, a substitute councilman in the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro. These actions include setting up roadblocks in November 2022, after Bolsonaro’s defeat in the presidential election, as well as the events which took place January 8.
The Federal Police identified message exchanges between Carvalho and Jordy, indicating a strong connection between them and Jordy’s influence in coordinating antidemocratic acts in the Campos dos Goytacazes region.
According to police, Carvalho manages at least 15 far-right groups on social media. He was arrested for 10 days on suspicion of paying for a bus to take protesters to Brasília on January 8.
There are messages in which Carvalho refers to Jordy as “my leader” and seeks guidance on “stopping everything,” referring to the roadblocks. “Good morning, my leader. What direction can you give me? We have the power to stop everything,” Carvalho wrote to Jordy in a message allegedly intercepted by the police.
When authorizing the operation against the congressman, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes highlighted the “evidence that Jordy would be the person effectively guiding the actions allegedly organized by Carvalho, not just a mere affinity between them.”
In Jordy’s home and office, the police seized documents, phones, computers, and a gun. The material will undergo forensic examination. On social media, Jordy criticized the operation, stating that he never encouraged roadblocks or the vandalism on January 8.
“At no time on January 8 did I incite or tell people that it was correct. I never supported any type of act, although people had every right to express their opinions against the elected government,” he said.
