Analysis: Brazilian Army fails to keep prudent distance from the government

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Since taking office two and a half years ago, Jair Bolsonaro has never missed an opportunity to test institutions. On Sunday, May 23, the president led an entourage of aides to Rio de Janeiro to take part in a demonstration in support of his government.

After a motorcycle caravan that gathered thousands of people, Bolsonaro climbed on a sound car and delivered a speech in which he once again criticized governors and mayors who decreed lockdowns, and said that the Brazilian Army – or “my Army,” as he likes to call it – would never take to the streets to force people to stay home.

However, earlier, the president had announced the presence of ex-minister of health Eduardo Pazuello, introduced to the audience as “our chubby guy.” The active duty general took the microphone and spoke for 23 seconds. He didn’t say anything relevant. He only greeted the “crowd” and claimed that the “PR” was a good man; this was enough to create the latest “crisis” in the government.

The Army’s disciplinary regulations ban  active duty military personnel from speaking publicly about any party political matter without prior authorization from their superiors. The act is considered a disciplinary transgression, which can have punishments ranging from a simple warning to imprisonment. For this to happen, the Army Commander, General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, would need to open an investigation, which he has done, hear Pazuello’s explanation, which he has now requested, and decide on the severity of the punishment.

However, the problem is much more complex, has other implications and, depending on the outcome, may indeed create a real crisis, with no quotation marks. The ex-minister was summoned to Rio de Janeiro and called to the stage by the President of the Republic, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Pazuello can claim, therefore, that he was following orders. This would not spare him from punishment, but, should it occur, it would surely call into question the authority of the one who gave the order – the president himself.

The other alternative is explosive. If general Pazuello is not punished, the Army will be opening the door for any active military officer to be allowed to engage in political campaigns and demonstrations, thereby breaching the principles of hierarchy and discipline, the pillars that sustain the Armed Forces.

Bolsonaro knows very well how this works. In 1986, while serving as a captain in the 8th Field Artillery Group, unauthorized by his superiors, he wrote an article in VEJA magazine exposing the situation of his uniformed colleagues and protesting against their low salaries. He was punished with fifteen days in jail.

Dissatisfied, he also disclosed plans to launch terrorist attacks in case the troop’s demands were not met. At the time, the Military Superior Court initiated proceedings against him, and he decided to go into reserve status before being tried. It was a Solomonic solution found by the authorities to prevent setbacks that could threaten the still fragile democracy that was taking its first steps after 20 years of dictatorship.

Pazuello’s case tends to follow, if not the same script, the same logic. Never showing their faces, high-ranking military personnel are saying that they are outraged by the general’s behavior and advocate that he should immediately reqquest reserve status, which would obviate further embarrassment – reserve officers are not subject to the prohibition against political activity.

The ex-minister would be punished, probably mildly, and the incident would be forgotten. “The Army always tries to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” said a senior officer who, for obvious reasons, requested anonymity. Advocates of a conciliatory solution recall that there are recent precedents for disciplinary transgressions that are much more serious.

In 2015, the thn military commander of the South, General Hamilton Mourão, harshly criticized the administration of President Dilma Rousseff in a lecture to uniformed colleagues. After the “crisis” was established, Mourão was transferred to a bureaucratic position in Brasília, where he remained for some time; he went into reserve status and ran for Vice-President on Jair Bolsonaro’s slate.

Incidentally, the Army commander at the time was General Eduardo Villas Bôas, who three years later would also become involved in a controversial incident. In April 2018, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) was preparing to judge a habeas corpus that could free ex-president Lula from prison.

On the eve of the session, Villas Bôas published the following message on his Twitter account: “I assure the nation that the Brazilian Army believes it shares the desire of all good citizens to repudiate impunity and respect the Constitution, social peace, and democracy, and remains vigilant to its constitutional missions.”

The following day, the STF Justices rejected the leftist’s petition. The post, in addition to being an obvious political statement, was considered a threat. Years later, the general explained that it had been a mere “warning” to the Justices. In 2019, when he left the command, sick and debilitated – he suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – Villas Bôas took over as an advisor to the Institutional Security Cabinet at the Planalto Palace.

Given all these aspects, punishing General Pazuello is not a simple task.

A week before the Rio de Janeiro demonstration, there had been another in Brasilia. This time, alongside President Bolsonaro was Defense Minister General Braga Netto. At the time, the minister also took the microphone and spoke to the audience, amid cries of “I authorize,” a slogan that Bolsonarists created to show support for the deployment of the Armed Forces to prevent restrictive measures decreed by governors and mayors.

“The Armed Forces are ready to guarantee that everyone has the right to work,” said the minister, who took office in March in place of General Fernando Azevedo e Silva. Incidentally, when he was in office, Azevedo e Silva also joined Bolsonaro at a demonstration calling for the closure of Congress and the STF, among other issues. To Braga Netto and Azevedo’s advantage is the fact that they are both reserve generals – not active duty.

“What has been happening is bad for Brazil and for democracy. The more politicized the Armed Forces become, the greater the risk that they will become involved in direct political participation and assume inappropriate positions. We must not forget that there are 370,000 armed officers,” says Juliano Cortinhas, a professor at the University of Brasília.

By surrounding himself with generals, particularly active-duty officers, Bolsonaro is in fact trying to turn the Army into one of his government’s political branches. By showing that his most questionable attitudes have the unconditional backing of those who hold the key to the armory, the president uses the Armed Forces to intimidate opponents.

The outcome of Pazuello’s case, for all these reasons, could serve as an example; however, it is more likely to come to nothing. The silence of the Ministry of Defense and the Army Command says a great deal about this situation.

Source: Veja