The setting in which the video was recorded does not seem coincidental. The two people are in Plaza de Mayo, with the Casa Rosada in the background, and behind them you can see how two members of the Military House proceed to remove the gigantic Argentine flag that is there. The Brazilian portal UOL published last weekend the images of two of the citizens of that country involved in the attack by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro who on January 8 invaded the Planalto Palace, headquarters of the government in Brasilia, and who Now they are wanted by Justice. They are part of the more than 65 who escaped to Argentina and some of them requested political asylum from the government of Javier Milei.
Asylum requests must be processed before the National Commission for Refugees of Argentina (CONARE) and The list of those who requested it has not yet been revealed. A few days ago, the Brazilian ambassador in Buenos Aires, Julio Glinternick Bitelli, raised a list of 143 people who were convicted for the riot through a document issued by the Federal Supreme Court of the neighboring country. Once the Argentine government responds, Lula da Silva’s administration could request the extradition of the accused.
The Argentine Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, had declared in an interview with radio Miter As soon as the case emerged last week, he did not know the whereabouts of the Brazilian fugitives and had not received any formal extradition request. The current agreement between Brazil and Argentina was agreed in 1968.
In the video, Luiz Fernandes Venancio, a man around 50 years old, identifies himself as a street vendor. He starts shouting Milei’s typical slogan (“Long live fucking freedom”) and He says that he fled by land to Uruguay after breaking the electronic anklet that had been placed on him to monitor it. And then she contacted a friend who lives in Córdoba to get to our country. He relates that he requested judicial review of his case and that he was prevented from moving from his home on weekends and within a limited radius on the rest of the days. “I am a free man and I am going to die free,” he says. “I needed to work. Thus I began to violate the precautionary measures until the revocation of my freedom was requested,” he admits.
Fernandes Venancio affirms that he is living in the Recoleta neighborhood, that he wants to become an “entrepreneur” and that he sells bracelets on the street to earn income. And that he is willing “to swim across an ocean” to defend their freedom.
The other, younger with a pink jacket and a white scarf, is Marco Simon Oliveira. He admits that he escaped through the south of Brazil and that no one asked him for documentation when entering our territory. That he stayed in a place that welcomes refugees and that although he covered his expenses at the beginning with money that he has saved, now he goes to a parish at night to be able to eat. “We are not certain that we will be declared innocent even if we are. We feel that we cannot prove our innocence, that is why it was necessary to request asylum here.”, he assures.
The Brazilian Federal Police targets the crimes of “violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, qualified damage, criminal association, incitement to crime, destruction and deterioration or disabling of specially protected property.”
The vice president during Bolsonaro’s administration, Hamilton Mourao, who is now a senator, requested asylum for those involved on his social network account X last Tuesday, June 11. “The departure of those convicted and investigated for the acts of January 8 to Argentina It only shows that these people no longer trust the Brazilian Justicewhich has denied them basic due process rights and imposed disproportionate sentences in relation to the crimes allegedly committed,” he wrote.
“The international capture, so desired by the current government, clearly shows the authoritarian and persecutory bias of the left in power. May Milei and the National Commission for Refugees (CONARE) grant them fair political asylum,” he added.
At the end of May, Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, had given a talk in the Chamber of Deputies, invited by the deputy of La Libertad Avanza, María Celeste Ponce from Córdoba, also to ask for asylum for the accused who fled to Argentina.
This Friday, Parlasur parliamentarians from both Argentina and Brazil sent a letter to Patricia Bullrich, asking her to report on the possible illegal entry into the country of more than 65 fugitives who are accused of the coup attempt that occurred in Brazil.
In the letter they requested “reliable information regarding the situation of a group of Brazilian citizens accused of the attempted coup d’état that occurred on January 8, 2023 in the Federative Republic of Brazil who had entered the Argentine Republic illegally.”
In this sense, Senator Humberto Costa, member of the Social Affairs Commission, said: “This is a very important consultation between the members of Parlasur and the Argentine government. Our countries are part of a bloc and it is important that, in accordance with treaties and within the framework of judicial cooperation, they can provide each other with accurate information. Especially when it comes to fugitives from justice involved in an attempted coup d’état.”
Argentine parliamentarian Gabriel Fuks said: “What we are demanding from Minister Bullrich is the ratification of the information on the admission of more than 100 people prosecuted for last year’s attempted coup in Brazil. In particular, our concern is that this has had some type of local coordination given Eduardo Bolsonaro’s statements and his presence in Argentina.
The note was sent with the signature of parliamentarians from Unión por la Patria y por Costa, of the Brazilian PT. The members of the Mercosur parliament asked the former presidential candidate and current Minister of Security of Argentina, Patricia Bullrich, about whether there are “records of the entry or presence of defendants.”
