The criminal lawyer José Carlos Portella Junior argues that the trial of what prosecutors call “Fourth Core”, the group responsible for spreading lies and undermining confidence in Brazil’s electronic voting system, is crucial to understanding how disinformation became a political weapon in the 2023 coup attempt.
“This nucleus was absolutely central to the coup plotters’ goals,” Portella said in an interview with Radio BdF. “Its purpose was to manipulate public opinion through what we can only call disinformation.”
According to Portella, the defendants’ main task was “to generate falsehoods about the electoral process and the electronic voting machines, creating a climate of social chaos and spreading the notion that the Brazilian elections were fraudulent.” He recalls that former president Jair Bolsonaro, of the far-right Liberal Party (PL), began promoting the idea of electoral fraud well before the 2022 elections “as a way to justify his eventual defeat and convince supporters that it would be an unfair loss.”
The lawyer stressed that the group, made up of six military officers and one civilian connected to the Instituto Voto Legal (Legal Vote Institute), played an “extremely relevant role” in radicalizing Bolsonaro’s base. “How else could we explain such a mobilized, radicalized mass if not through daily propaganda insisting that Bolsonaro’s defeat had been unjust?” he asked.
On Tuesday (14), Brazil’s General Attorney Paulo Gonet requested the conviction of all seven defendants.
Portella also pointed out that the ongoing trial should be read in connection with the verdict in the case of the “Hard Core”, which sentenced Bolsonaro himself and several generals, including former Defense Minister Braga Netto, to prison. “These two cores are deeply intertwined,” Portella said. “There is a strong link between them.”
For him, disinformation was a defining feature of the Bolsonaro administration, not only in the electoral sphere but also “in the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, environmental policy, culture, and education.”
When asked about proposals in Congress to reduce sentences for those convicted in the coup plot under the guise of “national reconciliation,” Portella dismissed them as attempts to protect the perpetrators. “This so-called pacification really means guaranteeing impunity for those who carried out the coup,” he stated.
Finally, the lawyer addressed the upcoming appointment to replace Supreme Court Justice Luís Roberto Barroso, who is due to step down this year. Portella argued that the next justice must be someone committed to democracy and workers’ rights.
“We need a minister who defends the interests of the working class, not those of the big bourgeoisie, which is willing to do anything, even support a coup project, in the pursuit of profit,” he concluded.
