After three months in Florida, Jair Bolsonaro returns to Brazil today with the aim of, he says, “walking the country”, “playing politics” and “raising the flag of conservatism”. The return of the former president of the republic comes amid the political scandal of jewel embezzlement in Saudi Arabia, but also after a terrible week for his successor, Lula da Silva. And it has the 59th anniversary of the coup that established the dictatorship in the country in 1964, celebrated tomorrow in military clubs, as its backdrop.
“Bolsonaro’s return on the eve of the anniversary of the military coup seems no coincidence: he wants to challenge Lula’s authority as commander-in-chief and show that he has his own army. Active officers, only those in reserve, will be a trial by fire for the government” , political scientist Vinícius Vieira summed up to DN.
The Military Club of Rio de Janeiro, among others across the country, will celebrate with lunch and speeches the 59th anniversary of the coup that established the military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. democratic movement of 1964,” according to the institution’s website.
According to an article in the Revista Sociedade Militar, “despite the rejection by the defense minister and the commanders of the armed forces, the members of the Military Club have already warned that they will not back down, the officials warn that the clubs are private institutions with the right to celebrate whatever they want, as long as it is approved by the partners”.
The article refers to the decision of José Múcio, Lula’s defense minister, not to celebrate the coup this year. The decision was of course welcomed by the commanders of the army, air force and navy, according to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.
Another minister of Lula, the holder of human rights, Sílvio Almeida, will even attend the Third Walk of Silence, an event in São Paulo that brings together entities, relatives of the dead, disappeared politicians and other victims of the dictatorship in one act which, according to the organization, serves to ‘uncommemorate’ March 31.
These actions are in stark contrast to those of the Bolsonaro government over four years. As early as 2019, the first year of his term, the former president asked for the “appropriate commemorations” for that date because, according to the then spokesperson for the Planalto, the then president did not consider the 1964 seizure of power as a blow.
For Vinícius Vieira, “March 31 will thus be the strongest test for the Lula government, since January 8, to know whether military anarchy still works in practice or not”. “Bolsonaro may even be invited to an event at a military club and is likely to make a statement, which will certainly have huge repercussions to which the government will have to respond strongly to crush any incentive for the coup.”
The Communications Department of the Military Club of Rio de Janeiro, contacted by DN, said Bolsonaro is not expected to attend tomorrow’s celebrations: “Only lunch and speeches.”
reinforced security
However, the commercial flight that will carry Bolsonaro should arrive in Brasilia at 7 a.m. local time (11 a.m. from Lisbon). While Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the PL, Bolsonaro’s party, and two deputies called Bolsonaristas to the airport, the security secretariat of the Federal District is on high alert. In a meeting on Tuesday, police decided that Bolsonaro should swap the main jetty for an alternate route. However, the politician’s aides guarantee that he will not accept leadership because he wants to land “in the arms of the people”.
In addition to Costa Neto, General Braga Neto, the defeated candidate for Bolsonaro’s vice presidency, will also receive the former head of state.
Alexandre Padilha, Lula’s minister of institutional relations, said yesterday that “this matter falls within the remit of the Security of the Federal District, the government is not commenting on it”, but added that “Bolsonaro has a lot to explain”.
After losing the election in October, Bolsonaro remained silent, without acknowledging Lula’s victory, until the end of 2022. The day before his successor took office, on January 1, 2023, he decided to travel to the US and live in the house of a court-martial doctor fighter for three months, now running out, have seen more often cry defeat than fight opposition, much to the disappointment of the PL. But on Monday, when he announced his return, he already showed a different character by even calling Brazil’s president a “nine fingers.”
“The economy in Brazil is already starting to suffer, in January it grew half of the previous January – from yesterday to today four car manufacturers gave their employees collective holidays, a sign of layoffs -, there is no question, the business has pulled the brakes at hand and the problem is trust; the “nine fingers” told us to give up economics books, the man has never read a Tio Scrooge in his life and now he talks about giving up economics books,” Bolsonaro said before Monday. supporters, in Florida.
rivals in crisis
In fact, Lula had the worst week since taking office: he contracted pneumonia that delayed his trip to China until April, saw the Monetary Policy Committee keep interest rates at 13.75%, the highest in the world, ignoring Planalto’s criticism, and denied even the Justice Minister himself by accusing Senator Sergio Moro of concocting a plan by a criminal organization to carry it out.
But Bolsonaro has been in crisis for months: he watched the January 8 attacks in Orlando, which were denounced by Brazil and the world, resulting in the arrest of his former justice minister, and got involved in a jewel embezzlement scandal. purse that seems to never end.
After a Bolsonaro minister’s attempt to evade customs with a jewelry box worth nearly three million euros offered by the Saudi Arabian government in 2021 was reported, it was learned that a second case passed the tax barrier and is in his possession Remained. Already after the former president was forced by authorities to return the second case, news emerged of a third, kept in the farmhouse of former motorist and notorious Bolsonarist Nelson Piquet.
Source: DN
