Coup Atlas Research Database
← Back to explorer
14012292022ConspiracyDissident coup

Brazil, 2022 — dissident coup conspiracy

Brazil (BRA)South America, AmericasDecember 29, 2022

Event Summary

This entry is coded 29 December 2022, in the closing days of the 2022 to 2023 Brazilian coup plot to keep outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro in power after his October 2022 election defeat by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Investigators later established that a network of Bolsonaro government members and military officers planned to subvert the transfer of power, and that these actions peaked in November and December 2022 in a scheme codenamed Green and Yellow Dagger, which allegedly included plans to assassinate president-elect Lula and others and to shut down key institutions. A concrete marker in this window came on 24 December 2022, when a Bolsonaro supporter was arrested after planting a bomb near Brasilia's airport, telling police he sought to sow chaos to prevent Lula's inauguration and provoke a military intervention.

The climate of pro-Bolsonaro agitation and protest camps outside military barracks continued through the final days of December and culminated in the 8 January 2023 storming of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace. The 29 December 2022 coding sits in this late-December 2022 peak of coup-plot activity, days before Lula's 1 January 2023 inauguration.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: The plot failed; Lula was inaugurated and Bolsonaro was later convicted over it
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
president-elect Lula and the democratic transition (target)
outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro
officers behind the Green and Yellow Dagger plan

Sources

During and after the 2022 Brazilian general election, a network of members of former president Jair Bolsonaro's government and of the armed forces planned to subvert the transition of power to newly elected president Lula, arrest a Supreme Court justice and the Senate president, and shut down institutions in an attempt to keep Bolsonaro in power.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia: 2022-2023 Brazilian coup plot open source ↗
Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes said the plot's actions, peaking between November and December 2022, were part of a broader plan to carry out a coup d'etat to prevent the inauguration of the legitimately elected government.
SOURCE REVIEWED The Week/AP: Brazilian police arrest five officers in alleged 2022 coup plot to kill President Lula open source ↗
The Federal Police investigation into a plan called Green and Yellow Dagger, drawn up in 2022 to prevent the inauguration of president-elect Lula and vice president-elect Alckmin, alleged the plan included the murder of Lula, Alckmin, and Justice Moraes.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia: 2022-2023 Brazilian coup plot open source ↗
In September 2025 the trial of the leadership group before the Supreme Federal Court resulted in the conviction of all the defendants, with Jair Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years and 3 months in prison.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia: 2022-2023 Brazilian coup plot open source ↗

Editorial Note

Coded 29 Dec 2022 sits in the late-December 2022 peak of the coup plotting (a pro-Bolsonaro bomb-plot arrest near Brasilia's airport came 24 Dec; the plot culminated in the 8 Jan 2023 storming), days before Lula's 1 Jan 2023 inauguration. This is the second of two adjacent late-2022 Brazil Conspiracy entries (the 18 Dec 2022 record covered the same plot). Second Brazil record in the run.

Cross-Reference

Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.

Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:

Cline Center id
14012292022

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The plot failed; Lula was inaugurated and Bolsonaro was later convicted over it.

Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.

Baseline Dataset Citation

Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

Jerusalem Post

“Brazil police make arrests, probe coup attempt by Bolsonaro riots,” December 29, 2022

The Border Mail

“Brazil investigates alleged coup attempt,” December 29, 2022

International Business Times News

“Brazil Arrests Four People for Alleged Coup Attempt in Bolsonaro Riots,” December 29, 2022

CE Noticias Fin Acier As English

“Brazilian Police Detain Four People for Alleged Coup Attempt,” December 29, 1969

This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →

Know something about this event?
Tips are reviewed against sources before anything is added.