by João Marcelo
SAO PAULO – In a meeting on Tuesday morning, the 30th, the commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force delivered the cargo to the newly appointed Minister of Defense, Walter Braga Netto, as the Ministry of Defense officially announced. The fact is unprecedented in the country’s recent history. Faced with the movement of the three commanders of the Armed Forces to make positions available in solidarity with former Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva, President Jair Bolsonaro anticipated and determined changes in the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Since the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution, no president of the Republic has interfered with the Armed Forces in the way that Bolsonaro did. The president intended to replace only the army commander, Edson Leal Pujol, from whom he demanded an attitude of political alignment with the government. But the commanders of the Navy, Ilques Barbosa Júnior, and of the Air Force, Antônio Carlos Moretti Bermudez, sympathized with Pujol and also chose to leave.
Behind the resignation of the defense minister, Azevedo e Silva, would be the dissatisfaction of President Jair Bolsonaro with the army commander, Edson Pujol. Pujol has always been strict in his defense that the army should not and cannot make political statements, neither support nor criticism of governments, and that active military personnel should not enter politics.
Vice President Hamilton Mourão defended that the new commanders of the Armed Forces be chosen respecting the criterion of seniority among the most senior officers of the Army, Navy and Air Force. However, President Bolsonaro does not usually follow these rites, as has been derived on other occasions. The vice president also minimized the exchange at the posts, saying the commanders have no mandate and his appointment is the prerogative of President Jair Bolsonaro.
BRASILE. SCONTRO CON BOLSONARO, SI DIMETTONO CAPI FORZE ARMATE
di João Marcelo
SAN PAOLO – In Brasile i comandanti di Esercito, Marina e Aeronautica hanno rimesso i loro incarichi nelle mani del neo-ministro della Difesa,