After Shooting, Gomes and Bolsonaro Families Exchange Barbs

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP) wrote on social media that Senator Cid Gomes lacked “the minimum intelligence” to deal with the striking state police (PM) officers in Ceará. The post included a video of the moment Cid was shot, but was deleted from the deputy’s profile minutes later.

According to Eduardo, federal deputy Major Fabiana was in Ceará to take part in the collective bargaining. Fabiana once headed the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat of Victimization in the Wilson Witzel administration but left office claiming to be “eternally loyal to the Bolsonaro family”.

“Deputy Major Fabiana proactively sought the best way out of the current situation with the PM in Ceará. Unfortunately she can not rely on the slightest intelligence from Senator Cid Gomes,” wrote Eduardo.

The deputy was questioned, through his press adviser, to explain why he deleted the post but there were no comments. Seconds later, Eduardo posted yet another comment in which he lessened the tone of his criticism of the senator and said Gomes had acted “foolishly”.

Reaction

The Gomes family, the most politically influential in Ceará, collects incidents of public outbursts and strong statements – Cid standing out for the former and Ciro for the latter.

Cid’s brother, former Governor Ciro Gomes, reacted to the deputy’s second message. At around 8:30 PM on Wednesday, Ciro published a report on social media with Eduardo’s statements and countered with allegations against the Bolsonaro family.

“They’ll have to kill us before we allow the militias to control the State of Ceará like the scoundrels of his family did in Rio de Janeiro,” wrote Ciro, who ran against Jair Bolsonaro in the 2018 presidential elections.

Ciro’s reaction is a reference to the relationship between Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Eduardo’s older brother, and the militia and former police officer Adriano Magalhães da Nóbrega, who died twelve days ago in Bahia. In 2005, Flávio proposed that Nóbrega be awarded the Tiradentes Medal, the highest honor of the Rio de Janeiro legislature. At the time, the militiaman was under arrest on suspicion of murder.

When he was a state deputy in Rio, Flávio also employed the militiaman’s ex-wife and mother in his office. Following Adriano’s death, he again voiced his views on Twitter and implied that the ex-police officer had been tortured.