From Brasília to the Amazon, the Coup Crowd Runs With the Cartel
Congress wants to pardon “innocent patriots.” But inside the mob were men taking orders from Brazil’s biggest criminal faction.
The Brazilian far-right has been busy trying to rewrite January 8. Their story? The rioters who stormed Congress, smashed windows, and trashed the Supreme Court were nothing more than “patriotic ladies with Bibles in hand.” Innocent believers. Good Christians who just got a little carried away.
Bullshit.
Because when you dig into who was actually arrested that day, the fairytale collapses fast. Among the so-called “patriots” are people with ties to Brazil’s most notorious criminal faction, the Comando Vermelho. Yes, the same gang that controls chunks of the Amazon with rackets, extortion, and AK-47s.
Take Wesley Bedeu, 27. He was in Brasília for the coup attempt. A few months later, he wasn’t on Telegram swapping memes about freedom—he was in Redenção, Pará, torching the car of a local internet provider on orders from the CV. He even filmed himself doing it and sent the video straight to his boss in the gang. That’s not a misguided believer. That’s a mercenary. He’s now serving a 26-year sentence.
This is what the right doesn’t want to admit: January 8 wasn’t a carnival of confused aunties and misguided uncles. It was a toxic convergence—radicalised Bolsonaro fanatics rubbing shoulders with hardcore criminals, all united by one thing: contempt for democracy.
Now Congress is pushing an amnesty bill. Translation: wiping the slate clean for people who tried to overthrow a government less than two years ago. If it passes, it won’t just free “the little people.” It’ll also hand a get-out-of-jail-free card to gang-connected thugs who turned Brasília into their playground.
We’ve seen this movie before. Brazil’s last dictatorship ended with an amnesty law that let torturers and generals walk free. That wound still festers in the country’s politics. Granting amnesty again—this time to coup plotters in bed with organised crime—wouldn’t be “reconciliation.” It would be self-sabotage.
Here’s the thing: authoritarianism doesn’t always wear a uniform or carry a Bible. Sometimes it shows up in flip-flops, waving a flag, or on a motorbike, livestreaming a firebomb attack. Pretending these people are harmless isn’t just dishonest—it’s dangerous.
If Brazil wants a future where democracy actually means something, then it has to stop pretending January 8 was a minor “excess.” It was an attempted coup—and some of its foot soldiers also take orders from the same guys running drug routes and protection rackets.
Amnesty doesn’t heal. Amnesty rots. And if the far-right gets its way, the next attack won’t come from “ladies with Bibles.” It’ll come from the same unholy alliance of extremists and criminals who already showed us exactly what they’re capable of.
