Harassed by post-election mob, Lula arrests army

SAO PAULO (AP) — When crowds stormed key government buildings in January to contest the result of Brazil’s presidential election, many soldiers just watched as protesters smashed windows, defecated in offices and vandalized buildings. works of art.

Images from the day in Brasilia continue to haunt the leftist government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Since then, he has worked to ensure that the leaders of the armed forces defend Latin America’s largest democracy and stay out of politics.

The threat is not purely hypothetical. Brazil has gone through four coups, the most recent of which, in 1964, led to two decades of brutal dictatorship.

Lula’s task is full of tension. Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro abound in the military ranks and the role of the armed forces in the new government is diminishing day by day.

Lula appointed more than 100 civilians to key military positions under the Bolsonaro government and handed oversight of the intelligence agency to his chief of staff, among other changes.

“Lula had to manage his relationship with the military to be able to govern and he will continue to do so,” said Carlos Melo, professor of political science at Insper University in Sao Paulo.

Melo believes that the Brazilian military is convinced that it exerts “a kind of tutelage over the political process of the country” and Bolsonaro has encouraged this belief.

Bolsonaro, a retired army captain, has appointed more than 6,000 military personnel to positions in his government and revived an annual commemoration of the 1964 coup to fuel nostalgia for the days of military rule.

Despite human rights abuses and the loss of civil liberties, Bolsonaro and many of his supporters fondly remember this time as a period of strong nationalism, economic growth and right-wing values. They consider Lula’s efforts to tame the army to be excessive and wrong.

“Stop looking in the rear view mirror and govern for all Brazilians,” Bolsonaro’s former vice president and current senator, General Hamilton Mourão, said in an interview.

Lula’s most significant move to date was the appointment of General Tomás Paiva as head of the army.

Paiva, 62, pledged to keep soldiers out of politics and to respect the results of October’s election, which Lula narrowly won.

But Paiva also acknowledged that most military leaders voted for Bolsonaro and lamented Lula’s victory in front of his subordinates. Three days later, Lula offered him the promotion and Paiva said he was misunderstood.

Lula took various measures to isolate Brazil from the risk of a new insurrection, with the at least tacit support of part of the military:

— He blocked the appointment of a man loyal to Bolsonaro as commander of the Goiania Battalion, based just 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the capital.

– Placed the intelligence agency, previously overseen by the military, under the command of the civilian-led Chief of Staff.

— Made a symbolically important trip to the United States, which before the election had warned military commanders to stay out of politics if they wanted to buy weapons and gain the cooperation of the US military.

For now, there are no signs of a new insurgency underway or that military commanders are questioning Lula’s orders, according to a senior official and close aide to the defense minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized. do it publicly.

Lula asked for the army’s cooperation twice in February: in an operation to evict some 20,000 illegal miners from the Yanomani indigenous region in the Brazilian Amazon and to help rescue people after mudslides in Sao Paulo.

These were the first tests of the relationship between the president and the military, and the results were very positive, says political consultant Thomas Traumann. However, there is no guarantee of long-term stability, he notes.

It remains to be seen whether the retired and active soldiers who participated in the riots of January 8 or turned a blind eye to them will be sanctioned. Some analysts believe it would be important to deter future acts.

In a video from January 8, police officers from the presidential palace order the soldiers: “Lead your troops! shouts an agent to the officers of the presidential guard, which is part of the army.

In another video, dozens of insurgents are surrounded by police in the palace as a general attempts to free them. ” You are crazy ? shouts an agent. “They’re in jail!”

Hundreds of civilians who took part in the insurrection are in prison and dozens are charged, but so far the military has not been affected. The military prosecution and the main court martial launched 17 investigations, but without any transparency.

The designated head of the higher military court, Joseli Camilo, says he is pleased when the military canceled a plan to commemorate the upcoming anniversary of the 1964 military coup, a dictatorial-era tradition revived by Bolsonaro.

“It is one more demonstration that the commander is aligned with all the powers towards our common challenge, which is to pacify Brazil and definitively strengthen democracy in our country,” Camelo added.

Mourão, Bolsonaro’s former vice president, said the armed forces should not forgive their troops who are found guilty of participating in the insurgency. “The armed forces are trained to be rigorous in investigating disciplinary misconduct and military crimes,” he says.

Even before taking office in January, Lula, who served as president from 2003 to 2010, understood that closer ties with right-wing armed forces were essential.

Some high-profile military commanders had publicly mocked him before the election and some had even campaigned for Bolsonaro’s re-election. For months, the army allowed anti-Lula protesters and supporters of a military coup against him to camp outside their barracks.

During his first two presidential terms, Lula’s relations with the military were characterized by conciliation rather than confrontation, comments journalist Fabio Victor, author of a recent bestseller on the Brazilian armed forces and politics, but the month of January seems to have upset the calculations.

Contrary to what happened under the Bolsonaro government, few soldiers work in the presidential palace, adds Victor. Looking ahead, Lula’s allies in Congress are pushing for the constitution to be changed to more clearly define the powers and limits of the armed forces, and his ministers are considering military education reforms.

“Today, Lula is very suspicious of the military,” adds Victor.