General Augusto Heleno, who was sentenced to 21 years in prison, revealed during a medical examination that he had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease since 2018. A year after this diagnosis, he became head of the Institutional Security Office.
The 2022/2023 coup plot was not the only problem that Augusto Heleno went through. On the morning of October 21, 1977, Captain Augusto Heleno was Assistant Secretary of the Army, General Silvio Fruta. Who was just fired by President Ernesto Geisel.
At around 10 a.m., from his superior’s car, he attempted to contact General Fernando Bethlem, commander of the southern garrisons, and summon him to a high command meeting at which Frota intended to block Geisel. He did not find her, as Bethlem went to the Palacio do Planalto, where he received an invitation to take up the service.
A year later, Augusto Heleno was monitored by the National Information Service: “It is noteworthy that Cavalry Captain Augusto Heleno, former adjutant of General Silvio Frutta with whom he continues to maintain close relations, and Parachute Infantry Captain Bornier (son of General Bornier) who is related to General Hugo Abreu, will attend the Officer Improvement School.”
In 2008, frontiersman Sidney Poswillow compared him to American Colonel George Custer (1839-1876), who massacred Sioux Indians and was killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn. In 2018, the year he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, General Heleno told the École Supérieure de Warfare that “by the time the specific operations (of the army in Rio) start, a group of men will show up shouting about human rights. If human rights do not have human rights, we must first fix that.”
He further said: “Colombia spent 50 years in a civil war because they did not do what we did in Araguaia.”
Heleno never explained what “we did in Araguaia.” There the army fought a gang and killed not only the fighters but also the rebels who surrendered.
Military problems are present in the general’s family history. In 1912, his grandfather, then frigate captain Augusto Heleno, was appointed to the war council that judged mutinous sailors in what became known as the Whip Revolt.
Heleno is imprisoned in the Planalto military command, and his conviction is final. However, there is doubt. Therefore, he said in the fateful meeting on July 5, 2022 before the elections:
“There will be no review of VAR. So, whatever needs to be done has to be done before the election. If we have to change things, it will be before the election. If we have to turn the tables, it will be before the election.”
He has admitted to turning the tables before, but was found guilty of planning a plot aimed at carrying out a post-election coup.
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