The fragility of Brazil's democratic transition after the 2022 election has been laid bare with the revelation from a former military chief that the then-Army Commander threatened to arrest President Jair Bolsonaro if he attempted to nullify the election result. Lieutenant-Brigadier Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, who served as Air Force Commander, details the high-stakes confrontation in his forthcoming book, where he asserts that General Marco Antônio Freire Gomes warned the sitting president he would be taken into custody if he followed through on coup-related draft decrees. The direct threat, which Bolsonaro and Freire Gomes have denied under oath during subsequent investigations, underscores the extent to which Brazil’s military command held the line against an institutional rupture in late 2022.