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after the attempted coup on Sunday the 8th, with invasion and devastation of Congress, the Federal Supreme Court and the Planalto Palace, the following day Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had an emergency meeting with the three commanders of the armed forces appointed by the far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, but approved by the new president’s team. Yesterday, Saturday, in a clear demonstration of the degree of tension that exists, Lula dismissed the commander-general of the army, Julio César de Arruda, and appointed a man he trusted, also General Tomás Ribeiro Paiva.
After the attempted coup, Lula was especially harsh in criticizing members of the army, navy and air force, both retired and active, who participated in the rebellion or failed to prepare for it.
The president was clear when he stated that there would be intense legal action against the invaders of the buildings of the three powers, as well as against the organizers and financiers of the attempted coup.
Also, this Friday there was a second meeting between the Brazilian president and the three commanders of the armed forces.
Between one meeting and another, justice showed efficiency with unusual speed. More than 1,800 people were detained and 400 were released with serious restrictions, such as the use of electronic anklets and the prohibition to participate in social networks.
In addition, a trial was opened against more than 800 people and the Federal Police continues to search for and apprehend suspects both of directly participating in acts of violence and of financing them.
The meeting on Friday had, among other things, to show that, despite the president’s criticism, there is fluidity between Lula and the three armed forces. Hard task…
After the meeting, Defense Minister José Mucio Monteiro spoke to the press.
He expressed and reiterated that the only topic discussed at the meeting was how to intensify investments in the defense industry
in the country.
He said that, in addition to the three military ministers, five businessmen also participated, including Josué Alencar, president of the very powerful Fiesp (Federation of Sao Paulo Industries), who brought proposals on how the government can invest in the defense industry. to generate jobs, new technologies, exports and save foreign currency.
When asked about the issue of the punishment of the military who participated in the coup attempt on January 8, Mucio was concise: the issue was not dealt with because it is in the hands of justice, and not the government. He reiterated that the main purpose of the meeting was to decrease spaces of tension
.
He also clarified that the military knows that when there is verification of the participation of the soldiers, both active and retired, in the attempted coup, there will be punishments by the justice system.
What he did not state is that there is already evidence that at least eight active soldiers who held positions very close to Bolsonaro participated in the camp erected by the ultra-rightists at the door of the army headquarters in Brasilia. Hundreds of invaders from the headquarters of the three powers came out of it on January 8th.
Other soldiers installed in the Institutional Security Cabinet (GSI), responsible for both protecting public assets and the security of the president, participated in WhatsApp groups sharing anti-democratic messages and threats against Lula.
Mucio also did not refer to something that is widely known in the country: the deep infiltration of the barracks, especially the army, by followers of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, who remains refugee
in Orlando, Florida.
Since he assumed the presidency, on the first day of 2023, Lula dismissed more than 7,000 soldiers, both active and retired, that his predecessor had scattered throughout the government. They were replaced by civil servants of the public career.
But there are still another 13,000 who will lose all the financial benefits offered by former President Bolsonaro.
Other victims are senior retired officials, who earned loads of money working as intermediaries between companies and the military in key positions in the previous government.
Now they will have to negotiate, or try to negotiate, with civilians, career public officials, and not with military infiltrators.
The apparent calm between Lula and the armed forces is not founded on solid ground: it floats in the air.
And also in the air there are threatening gales.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has shown, for years, that he knows how to negotiate, precisely to avoid storms.
Hopefully he hasn’t lost his hand!
