Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro clash with security forces as they raid the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, 08 January 2023.
Joedson Alves | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva fired Brazil’s army chief Saturday just days after the leftist leader openly said that some military members allowed the Jan. 8 rebellion within the capital by far-right protesters.
The official website of the Brazilian armed forces said Gen. Julio Cesar de Arruda had been removed as head of the military. He was replaced by Gen. Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, who was head of the Southeast Military Command.
Lula made no comments concerning the army change Saturday, when he was visiting Roraima state to follow up on the declaration of a health emergency within the Indigenous Yanomami’s region.
In recent weeks, Lula targeted the military with criticism after supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed through government buildings and destroyed public property in an try to keep Bolsonaro in office.
The rebellion underlined the polarization in Brazil between the left and the suitable.
Lula said several times in public that there have been definitely people in the military who allowed the rioting to occur, though he never cited Arruda.
During a breakfast with the press, Lula said earlier this week that “loads of people from the military police and the armed forces were complicit” and had allowed protesters to enter the buildings with open doors. In one other interview, the president said that “all of the military involved within the coup attempt will likely be punished, regardless of the rank.”
The comments were followed by Lula scheduling several meetings with the Defense Minister Jose Mucio, and the armed forces’ commanders. Mucio denied that they had mentioned the Jan. 8 rioting, but he said relations between the military and the federal government needed adjustment.
On the eve of Arruda’s firing, a video of a Paiva speech earlier within the week was released wherein he said the election results ought to be respected in an effort to guarantee democracy.
Rioters who stormed through the Brazilian Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in Brasilia sought to have the military intervene and overturn Bolsonaro’s loss to Lula within the presidential election.
In a video posted on social media from contained in the presidential palace on the day of the attack, a colonel is seen attempting to stop police from arresting Bolsonaro’s supporters who had invaded the constructing. He asks for patience from the military police, which report back to the federal district’s government.
Greater than a thousand people were arrested on the day of the riot and the morning after the disturbance, which bore strong similarities to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Congress by mobs who desired to overturn former President Donald Trump’s election loss.
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice earlier this month authorized adding Bolsonaro in its investigation into who incited the rioting in Brasilia as a part of a broader crackdown to carry responsible parties to account.
In keeping with the text of his ruling, Justice Alexandre de Moraes granted the request from the prosecutor-general’s office, which cited a video that Bolsonaro posted on Facebook two days after the riot. The video claimed Lula wasn’t voted into office, but quite was chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil’s electoral authority.
Lula has been trying to scale back the high variety of military officers in the federal government administration left by Bolsonaro. At the very least 140 military officers have been dismissed since Lula took office Jan. 1.
