Insubordinate Military Points to Dangers of Fascist Coup in Brazil

 

Newly elected President Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva remains in hotel accommodation in Brasília, still unable to reside in the Alvorada Palace due to material damage and security concerns.

On the 21st of January, Brazilian president, Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva, sacked general Júlio César de Arruda as head of the armed forces. Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, military commander of the country’s southeast region, will assume the post. The move, according to an unnamed source in Brazil’s military high command, caused “disaffection” within the company.

Arruda assumed head of the military on the 30th of December last year, just two days before the presidential swearing-in ceremony and the start of Lula’s third term in office. However, the military’s inaction on January 8th, when thousands of supporters of former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed the Three Powers Plaza in Brasilia, ransacking the main buildings housing the country’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches, meant Arruda could not be trusted.

Four days before Lula sacked Arruda, on January 17th, Brazil’s new government relieved 40 military officials of their duties as members of the Administrative Coordination team at Alvorada Palace, the official presidential residence.

Less than one month into his third term as head of state, Lula has repeatedly expressed reservations and a lack of trust among segments within the country’s military. “I’m waiting for the dust to settle,” he told journalists, after which he wants to “view all of the recordings captured inside the Supreme Court, inside the palace. Many security agents were complicit. Many PMs [military police] were complicit. Many from the armed forces, here inside, were complicit.”  (more...)

Insubordinate Military Points to Dangers of Fascist Coup in Brazil