Brazil Is in Grave Danger. These 1,105 Pages Prove It.

Two years ago, there was a coup attempt in Brazil.

Don’t take my word for it: See the 221-page and 884-page federal police reports released in November. The fruit of two years of investigation, these much-anticipated accounts describe in astonishing detail a plan to overthrow the incoming government.

The chaos of Jan. 8, 2023 — when supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, many clad in yellow soccer jerseys, assailed government buildings in the capital — grabbed international attention. But the riots marked the end, not the beginning, of a coup attempt. As the reports make clear, the turmoil came after a carefully coordinated plan to ensure that Mr. Bolsonaro, who was voted out in October 2022, stayed in power.

Most shockingly, the plot involved assassinations. According to the reports, an elite army unit was assigned to kill the incoming president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his vice president, Geraldo Alckmin. There were also plans to kidnap and probably kill a Supreme Court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, who leads many of the investigations into the country’s far-right movement.

The five members of the unit have been arrested. But the conspiracy goes far beyond them. Thirty-seven men, including Mr. Bolsonaro and a host of his allies, have been charged with planning the coup. If the charges are confirmed by Brazil’s prosecutor general, a trial will take place this year.

For Brazilians, the really scary thing isn’t how close we came to having our democracy destroyed in 2023 but that it could happen again — and succeed. The reports make clear that sitting within Brazil’s democracy is a force capable of overthrowing it: the military. It is the dagger hanging over the country.

Perhaps the best place to start is with the planned killings. We don’t have to use our imagination because, helpfully, the plotters wrote it all down. The president’s executive secretary, a retired general, Mario Fernandes, printed a draft document — at the presidential palace, no less. In a reference to Brazil’s national colors and no doubt to stiffen the plotters’ patriotic resolve, it was called “Green and Yellow Dagger.”