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RIO DE JANEIRO – The three commanders of the Brazilian armed forces jointly resigned on Tuesday, a day after President Jair Bolsonaro sacked his defense minister in a major cabinet reshuffle.
The departures of military leaders, which followed the unexpected replacement of five other cabinet members on Monday, fueled rampant speculation in the capital over a breakdown in relations between the president and the country’s military, which played a central role in the Bolsonaro administration. .
“The sacking of army, navy and air force chiefs after the sudden change of leadership in the defense ministry is unprecedented since the restoration of democracy,” said a lawmaker, the representing Rodrigo de Castro, in a press release. . “This reveals a real crisis between the army and the government.”
The political turmoil in Brasilia comes as the government faces strong criticism, including calls for the impeachment of Mr. Bolsonaro, for his cavalier and chaotic handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 313,000 Brazilians. An outbreak of infections has engulfed hospitals across the country, leaving patients to die while waiting for hospital beds.
Mr. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has given the military a leading role in politics and policymaking in Brazil, giving its leaders the most power they have held since the end of the country’s military dictatorship in the mid-1980s. He chose a retired army general as his vice presidential candidate and appointed key military leaders for dozens of high-level government posts normally held by civilians.
Retired generals and military analysts in Brazil have struggled to make sense of this week’s changes, which neither the president nor the outgoing commanders have explained.
“It doesn’t make sense politically or administratively,” said Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, a retired army general who held a high-level post in Mr. Bolsonaro until June 2019. “We have to explain why this happened, otherwise it reflects contempt for individuals and roles. “
Mariana Kalil, professor of geopolitics at the Brazilian National War College, said the president appeared to have stronger support in the lower echelons of the military than among the higher ranks. She said the chiefs may have severed ties with a politically struggling president to send a clear message that the armed forces will not make his political call.
“There has always been the assumption of a military commander supporting more repressive government policies, things outside the bounds of the law,” Ms. Kalil said. But she said Brazilian military leaders have played a “moderating” force in a government led by a brash and combative president that has turned many allies into enemies.
A leading opposition figure Senator Tasso Jereissati said that when Mr. Bolsonaro meddled in Congress and came under close scrutiny by the courts, “he always insinuated that the armed forces are backing him.”
While the president has chosen new fights with other elected officials over the proposed lockdowns, military leaders may have decided to jump ship rather than being seen as accomplices in a ruinous management of the pandemic, he said. said Senator Jereissati.
“We are paying the price for electing someone who is not at all prepared for the job, who is boorish and unbalanced,” he said.
Since taking office in January 2019, Mr. Bolsonaro has given military leaders enormous power over government agencies – and in so doing, tied their reputations to his. Military leaders have failed in the main missions that Mr. Bolsonaro assigned to them, including overseeing the pandemic response and tackling deforestation in the Amazon.
The president’s relations with his vice president, retired General Hamilton Mourão, and his outgoing defense minister, General Fernando Azevedo e Silva, have been strained in recent weeks, analysts say, amid the coronavirus crisis. in the country has worsened.
Last week, the president replaced his Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, an active-duty general who has failed to lead a comprehensive response to the pandemic or to negotiate the purchase of a sufficient quantity of the Covid vaccine. -19.
In his resignation letter, General Azevedo e Silva said he had sought to “preserve the armed forces as an institution of the state”. This sentence seems to indicate that Mr. Bolsonaro sought to politicize the armed forces.
The resignation of the three military commanders – General Edson Pujol from the army; Lieutenant Brig. Antonio Carlos Moretti Bermudez of the Air Force; and Adm. Ilques Barbosa Junior of the Navy – was announced in a short statement issued by the Ministry of Defense. He did not provide a reason.
Monday’s cabinet changes included the departure of Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo, an uncompromising conservative who has chosen battles with the Chinese government, Brazil’s biggest trading partner and main supplier of vaccines currently available in Brazil.
Lawmakers criticized Araújo for the country’s inability to ensure access to large numbers of Covid-19 vaccines.
Mr Bolsonaro has also replaced his Minister of Justice, his chief of staff and the lawyer who represents the executive branch in cases before the Supreme Court.
Representative Vitor Hugo de Araújo Almeida, a lawmaker close to the president, downplayed the importance of the changes.
“We are living in a pandemic, so all efforts must be focused on saving lives and saving jobs,” he said. “I think it is natural that he is making changes.”
The changes come as Mr Bolsonaro begins to prepare the ground for a re-election bid next year. He sowed doubts about the legitimacy of the electoral system, leading critics to question whether he could try to stay in power if he loses.
Amy Erica Smith, professor of political science at Iowa State University specializing in Brazil, said the president may be looking to appoint loyalists to key military positions.
“If Bolsonaro uses this opportunity strategically and plays the game well, he could replace the heads of the three branches with men who would be more willing to support his political projects,” she said.
But she said it might be difficult to find military leaders willing to join a president who has become so alienated from the political establishment.
“The Brazilian military is just not keen on going out on its own to support an unpopular president who is facing a host of other elected leaders,” Ms. Smith said.
Ernesto Londoño reported from Rio de Janeiro and Letícia Casado from Brasilia.
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