BRASILIA, March 31, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – President Jair Bolsonaro will replace
all three commanders of Brazil’s armed forces, his government said Tuesday,
the latest upheaval in Brasilia as the far-right leader braces against
mounting criticism over an explosion of Covid-19 deaths.
The exit of the army, navy and air force chiefs came a day after Bolsonaro
overhauled his cabinet, replacing the foreign, defense and justice ministers
as well as his chief of staff, attorney general and government secretary.
Last week, he also installed his fourth health minister of the pandemic.
The turmoil comes as the government struggles to control a deadly surge of
Covid-19 in Brazil, which has already killed more than 317,000 people in the
country — pushing many hospitals to the brink of collapse — with a record
of 3,780 deaths in the last 24 hours alone.
Bolsonaro, who comes up for re-election in October 2022, faces sliding
popularity and growing pressure over his handling of the pandemic, including
from key allies in Congress and the business world.
His attacks on lockdowns, face masks and vaccines have become fodder for
critics, with Brazil ranking only behind the United States in number of cases
and fatalities.
The defense ministry did not give a reason for the departure of Army
General Edson Pujol, Navy Admiral Ilques Barbosa and Air Force Lieutenant-
Brigadier Antonio Carlos Bermudes.
Some Brazilian media reported the trio had resigned in protest at
Bolsonaro’s surprise decision to replace defense minister Fernando Azevedo.
“For the first time in history, the commanders of all three branches of
the armed forces presented their joint resignation in disagreement with the
president,” said newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.
– ‘Possible political crisis’ –
Azevedo himself resigned because he was “uncomfortable with Bolsonaro’s
use of the military for political ends,” journalist Merval Pereira wrote in
newspaper Globo.
There were signs the armed forces commanders were uncomfortable, too,
particularly Pujol.
He said last November the military “doesn’t want to get involved in
politics.”
The army chief had also called fighting Covid-19 “our generation’s most
important mission” and once shunned Bolsonaro’s outstretched hand at an
official ceremony, offering a socially distanced elbow bump instead.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, frequently boasts of having the
military’s backing, and has packed his government with officers.
He is openly nostalgic for Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship,
despite its rights violations, including the kidnapping and torture of
dissidents.
The armed forces have since carefully rebuilt an apolitical image of
national service.
But Bolsonaro’s hardline base has put that to the test with calls to
reinstall military rule with him at the top — talk the president is accused
of fanning.
There was no official word on the reasons for Azevedo’s exit, but he said
in a parting statement he was proud to have “preserved the armed forces as an
institution of the state.”
Vice President Hamilton Mourao, an army general, said there was “zero”
risk of an anti-democratic intervention by the military against Congress or
the courts.
“You can put whomever you like (as commanders), there will never be an
institutional rupture. The armed forces will be on the side of legality,
always,” he said.
The military overhaul is part of the reform launched Monday by Bolsonaro,
who last week appointed Marcelo Queiroga, a cardiologist, as the fourth
health minister in a year.
Communications minister Fabio Faria told CNN Brazil that this is a “new
moment” for the government and that Bolsonaro “resolved to move some pieces
of the board,” as “all governments” do mid-term.
The president looks to be facing a tough election battle in 2022,
particularly after a Supreme Court justice earlier this month overturned
former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s corruption convictions, clearing
the way for the leftist to mount a potential run against Bolsonaro.
“The latest changes have a twin purpose: first, because (Bolsonaro) needs
to free up cabinet posts for his new centrist allies, and second, because he
is preparing for a possible political crisis and wants to surround himself
with extremely loyal people, especially in the armed forces,” political
analyst Oliver Stuenkel said.
Polls place the popular but controversial Lula, who was president from
2003-2010, neck and neck with Bolsonaro, at a time when the coalition that
brought the president to power in January 2019 is badly frayed.