Carlos Baptista Junior memoir on Brazilian coup resistance

Former Brazilian Air Force Commander Carlos Baptista Junior is set to release a memoir titled “Eu disse NÃO: uma trincheira antigolpista” in September. The book provides a personal account of the internal crises within the Brazilian Armed Forces between 2021 and the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula in January 2023.

Baptista Junior details his resistance to military pressures aimed at supporting an institutional rupture following Jair Bolsonaro’s 2022 election defeat. He describes high-tension meetings at the Alvorada Palace involving Bolsonaro and military leadership. In one instance, Bolsonaro reportedly told the commander, “Já te dei dois cartões amarelos” (“I have already given you two yellow cards”), which Baptista Junior viewed as an attempt to pressure him into abandoning his legalist stance.

The memoir highlights the activities of a “group of four”—consisting of Baptista Junior, Army Commander General Freire Gomes, Navy Admiral Almir Garnier, and Defense Minister General Paulo Sérgio—who met to discuss the military's direction during the electoral period. Baptista Junior recounts his decision to maintain that the Armed Forces would respect the election results and honor the incoming president.