Brazil’s military leaders intend to step down before Lula da Silva takes office

A controversy erupted the Brazilian military front translate the decision of the commanders of the three Brazilian armed forces, which they surprisingly decided to leave office at the end of December, before the inauguration by President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. That is to say, without waiting for the change of form with the new government already established. The measure would have been agreed upon by the military leaders in a meeting with outgoing President Jair Bolsonarorevealed the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

The newspaper quoted two former defense ministers, who described the measure as “a gesture of insubordination” towards the new authorities. The soldiers are General Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, in charge of the Army; Brigadier Carlos de Almeida Baptista Junior, del Aviationand Admiral Almir Garnier, del Marine.

The truth is that, due to this novelty, the leader of the PT he should have expedited the appointment of the new head of that portfolio, a civilian, to order the military front at the beginning of his government. He would be the former deputy and former minister of the Federal Court of Auditors, José Mucio Monteiro.

In military circles, cited by that São Paulo newspaper, it is given as insurance. The politician was included in the transition squad and participated in a first meeting on Monday 28. Múcio he is seen as skilled by general officers, even if he is inexperienced in the wallet details.

The most important thing, in light of these uniformed officers, is that he is not a root petist like Jaques Wagner, a former defense chief who was what looked like the favorite for the post. Lula’s team made that clear shortly after their electoral victory the head of the portfolio would no longer be a general as was customary in the Bolsonaro government.

Múcio’s appointment will take place next week, when he will have to speed up the election of new commanders.

“For the two occupants of Defense, from different governments, military commanders have pointed out to troops that not fully accepting Lula’s authority. Obviously, this is not a coup, but set a dangerous precedent at the lower levels,” said Folha, a media traditionally critical of the Bolsonaro government.

For other sources, this news has the advantage of facilitating the transition to the new government to appoint new leaders. But it is a controversy that arises in the midst of the others that have arrived complicating the transition path by the authoritarian attitudes of the outgoing president, who did not acknowledge defeat in the elections. There are demonstrations in Brazil in various cities, including the capital, Brasilia, request for military action to prevent the hiring of Lula da Silva.

The three commanders, who acknowledged the victory of the PT leader, issued a joint note on the 11th defending the right of the people to these demonstrations provided they are peaceful and he criticized the judiciary.

“Besides anti-petism, another trait that uniformed leadership shares with Bolsonarism is distrust of the high courts, which they describe as activists, with the Superior Electoral Court before it. The note (in favor of the marches) was criticized by the president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann, which helped to escalate spirits”, Folha pointed out.

According to some analysts the discomfort in the military sector is due to the loss of benefits with the change of government. In the Bolsonaro administration some 6,000 uniformed officers joined in different assignmentsfrom the vice presidency of the nation to lower ministries and offices, retaining theirs salaries originals with those of their new locations.

There were other benefits. In particular, the differentiated regime for men in uniform who go to the reserve, who achieved increases of up to 66%. if they did some kind of improvement course.

Likewise, the generals received up to $75,000 more in one yearafter a decree signed by the outgoing president allowed the accumulation of salaries and pensions above the public spending ceiling.

This provision was adopted in April 2021, cWhen the income of civil servants was frozenand Bolsonaro himself, Vice President Hamilton Mourão, military ministers and a small group of about a thousand federal officials have benefited from it.