The president of Brazil announced live in a televised interview on Friday that if it was necessary to send troops to the street to restore security, “orders will be executed”.
“If we have problems, we have a plan to enter the field,” Reuters news agency quoted Jair Bolsonaro as saying, refusing to add details “to what I am preparing.”
The president was suggesting that they could be forced to intervene to impose order on those who rise up for the disastrous management he has undertaken of the epidemic in the country.
The title of the article published on the website of the newspaper “Folha de São Paulo” on this subject reflects the reaction of bewilderment on the part of the army: “Military men complain about Bolsonaro’s words about the use of the army against the restrictions.” The text reads that the idea is “seen as strange in the Supreme Court” and politicians “signal a repetition of the president’s pattern.”
During his visit to Manaus, on Friday the 23rd, Bolsonaro announced to TV Crítica that the departure of the armed forces on the street would be “to enforce Article 5.” [da Constituição]: The right to come and go, to end this cowardice of curfew, the right to work, and religious freedom, according to Fulaha.
São Paulo newspaper sums up: “Less than a month after the biggest military crisis since 1977 in the country, Jair Bolsonaro has once again upset senior EAF officers with what they see as bravado: the use of the army against the restrictive measures of combat19”.
In this way, the Brazilian head of state feeds the conviction of many that he intends to politicize the Brazilian army and to exercise hegemony by force. Another current suspicion is that he will reject a peaceful handover of power in the event of a strong electoral outcome in the upcoming presidential elections next year.
