Who is General Mario Fernandes, who admitted to planning to kill authorities?

Retired General Mario Fernandes, who admitted to the STF (Supreme Federal Court) that he had drawn up the plan to kill authorities in 2022, was head of the Army's Special Operations Command in Goiânia when he met then-President Jair Bolsonaro ( PL ).

It was July 2019, and Bolsonaro had decided to visit the command headquarters, becoming the first president to do so since the return to democracy. Mario Fernandes himself guided the president and, two years later, was invited to join his government.

Fernandes, 61, was arrested last November on suspicion of planning the deaths of Lula (Workers' Party), Geraldo Alckmin (Socialist Party), and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes after Bolsonaro's defeat in the 2022 elections. The goal was to prevent the Workers' Party (PT) from taking office. According to investigations, to carry out the plan, Fernandes recruited some of his former subordinates in Goiânia—the "black kids," as the Special Forces soldiers are known.

His arrest was ordered after the Green and Yellow Dagger file, containing details of the plan, was found on his computer.

"I confirm, your excellency. This is, in fact, a digital file that portrays nothing more than a thought of mine that was digitized," said Fernandes in testimony to the STF on Thursday (24).

He downplayed the document's importance, claiming it was "a military man's perspective analyzing a situation," and denied having shown it to anyone. "Today I regret having digitized it," he said.

"I printed it out of a personal habit of avoiding reading the document on the screen, but I printed it for myself and then tore it up," he added.

At the time he drafted the document, Fernandes was the executive secretary of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, being the number two to Minister Luiz Eduardo Ramos, who is a friend of Bolsonaro and was freed from the accusations of the coup plot in the Supreme Court.

Like Bolsonaro, Fernandes graduated from Aman (Agulhas Negras Military Academy) and took a parachuting course. In his testimony before the Supreme Court, the retired general said he was not close to the former president despite their close relationship.

After the Bolsonaro government, Fernandes was assigned to the office of federal deputy Eduardo Pazuello (PL-RJ), former Minister of Health in the previous administration, between 2023 and 2024.

The general told the Supreme Federal Court that, at the time of the 2022 defeat, Bolsonaro was concerned about the possibility of electoral fraud, something the former president had touted throughout his term despite no evidence, no evidence, and no oversight to the contrary. "What I was in favor of, and always have been, was that President Bolsonaro, within his powers and prerogatives as head of the Executive branch, seek solutions to these concerns," he said.

But in November 2022, when he created the Green and Yellow Dagger, Fernandes sent a letter via WhatsApp to the then Army commander , General Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, pushing for a coup d'état.

"It's now or never, Commander, we have to act," he wrote.

The indictment filed by the Attorney General's Office alleges that the general acted as "a liaison between the government and Bolsonaro supporters" who were camped out calling for a military coup. According to the indictment, he visited the camp set up in Brasília four times.

The Attorney General's Office also says that Mário Fernandes was responsible "for coordinating the actions of monitoring and neutralizing public authorities."

"The plan detailed operational reconnaissance measures, providing for monitoring of 'places of frequency and stay' of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, with observation of his residence, work and place of sports practice."

The accusation also claims that he would act as "strategic advisor" to a cabinet that would be formed after the military coup.