Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this Wednesday fired thirteen members of the armed forces who worked at the Institutional Security Office (GSI), one of the offices whose performance has been most questioned after the January 8 attacks .
On Tuesday, Lula da Silva has again shown the distrust he feels towards part of the armed forces by firing 40 soldiers who worked as guards at the Alvorada Palace, the official residence, after assuring journalists that he was convinced of the complicity of a part of the armed forces security during the robbery.
A few days after the violent events that took place on the Esplanada dos Ministérios, the Brazilian President guaranteed that the doors of the Planalto Palace would be opened from the inside and announced that no one suspected of being a “Bolsonarista” would enter the government would stay.
As of Wednesday, five of the thirteen military personnel who held positions in the Representation Board in Rio de Janeiro, another seven in the Secretariat of Security and Presidential Coordination and one more in the Administrative Department of the GSI. In total, the Brazilian government has already fired 53 members of the armed forces.
Despite the distrust shown by much of the Lula government and the Workers’ Party (PT) in recent days, Civic House head Rui Costa denied that the latest firings are linked to these fears.
“It has nothing to do with mistrust. Even in the military areas, we change military personnel, so it is normal for the other advisers to rotate between these functions,” said Costa.
“It is nothing new, there is no mystery. Or did anyone think that the formation of the new government would keep the advisers of the previous government? That is unreasonable,” argued the minister of the Civil Chamber.
Costa, one of the men closest to President Lula da Silva, personally went to the Defense Ministry to meet with his boss, Minister José Múcio, and the three chiefs of the armed forces to approach the positions after the attempt to publicize taking over buildings took place almost ten days ago in Brasilia.
The government’s proposal is to invest in the armed forces through public and private companies to achieve modernization equivalent to that of other countries in the world. An initiative, Costa explained, that was already present in the campaign.
Source: DN
