Brazilian Army Commander reveals mission he received from Lula

Named Army Commander by President Lula, General Tomás Paiva revealed the mission he received from the President when he took office.

“My goal is to remove politics from the Force,” the general declared in an interview with O Globo newspaper, published this Sunday 2.

“We are professionals and must focus on our work.”

Paiva also said he would work to establish a “harmonious mission” between the military and the Planalto Palace.

LULA’S CHOICE

He was summoned to substitute Júlio Cesar de Arruda in the Army’s general command.

The change was sparked by Arruda’s resistance to cancel the assignment of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, a former aide-de-camp of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, to the 1st Battalion of Actions and Commands, in Goiânia (GO).

Paiva fell in Lula’s favor after an event held in January to honor the soldiers killed in the Peace Mission Brazil led in Haiti.

Paiva was part of the operations.

During his speech, the military man advocated respect for the results of the October 2022 elections.

“Being military is being professional,” he declared at the event.

“It is to respect hierarchy and discipline,” Paiva stated that the Armed Forces have the role of being an apolitical and nonpartisan state institution.

“It doesn’t matter who is in charge; we are going to accomplish the mission the same way,” he promised.

“That’s being military.”

“That’s not having a chain.”

“It doesn’t mean the military can’t be citizens and have opinions. They can have one, but they can’t express it.”

In the Armed Forces for 41 years, Paiva served as an aide-de-camp to former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (from 1995 to 1997 and from 1999 to 2000).

The friendship between them continued even after he left the Palácio do Planalto.

The former President strongly influenced the general’s vision of the Armed Forces.

Before being appointed to the highest post in the Army, Paiva headed the Military Command of the Southeast, whose headquarters are in São Paulo.

With information from Revista Oeste