Fake news
Written by Manuel Domingos Neto*
The Brazilian Democrat expressed his pleasure at the arrest of the military personnel who were found responsible for the coup attempt on January 8, 2023.
In fact, you should tone down your joy. Condemnation will either encourage a reconsideration of the role of the ranks or distort it.
It is worth noting that the trial met the barracks’ keenness to improve its image and self-esteem, which are two basic conditions for continuing its historical role.
The barracks had to convey to society the idea that the coup would result from misguided individual wills, and not from multifaceted and protracted corporate directives, directed to halt social and economic reforms and ensure hegemony over society and the state.
By convicting top officers, the Supreme Court not only pleased Democrats. He also announced that the barracks would be exempt from the criminal coup. In addition, it has fueled the misperception that the sector acts as a guarantor of democracy.
It is not easy to hide the responsibilities that have developed over time. Throughout its existence, the barracks shaped, inspired, sheltered, nurtured, and trained coup plotters. He learned that the military dictatorship was good for Brazil and that the ranks had higher moral standards than undisciplined civilians.
He taught that social reformers were dangerous and that the United States embodied the free, just, and beautiful world. He knew that Brazil’s defense should be an extension of the North Atlantic alliance headed by the Pentagon.
In the barracks, Bolsonaro learned to salute the American flag. It is natural for his children and followers to see the intervention of the White House in Brazil.
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Bolsonaro is a child in the barracks. His way of thinking and speaking was shaped in the ranks. His sharp reactionism, perception of society and misogyny reek of the barracks.
It was in the barracks, while speaking to cadets in December 2014, that Bolsonaro began his journey towards Planalto. Then General Enzo Peri took command of the army and General Thomas Paiva, Aman. They were not reprimanded. Dilma Rousseff was president of the republic, and Celso Amorim was its defense minister.
Bolsonaro’s election was, first and foremost, a military decision. Commander Villas-Boas, in April 2018, gave the Supreme Court the password to arrest Lula and facilitate the captain’s path to the presidency of the republic.
Millions of members of the “military family” were mobilized to support candidate Bolsonaro. I am not speculating here, but rather conveying information from a general who was leading his campaign.
This unity led to cognitive dissonance that reached a large portion of the electorate. He helped naturalize the captain’s calls for bloodshed. Ultimately, it worked against national cohesion.
Key figures and strategic guidelines from Bolsonaro’s abhorrent government emerged from the barracks.
With his re-election threatened, the barracks participated in an attempt to expunge the electronic ballot box while welcoming hordes of fanatics at its door.
There is no record of commanders being bothered by requests for “military intervention.” There are records of leaders supporting fanatical coup plotters. None of them responded to the violations.
At the end of 2022, a speech from General Freire Gomez will lead to the dispersal of the protesters in front of the military command, from where they left days later to participate in the riots in Praça dos Tres Podres square. However, the deleted general was marked as a legal hero.
At the end of a technically meticulous investigation and strict observance of judicial procedures, only a few generals were arrested, but this was enough for most Brazilians to believe that democracy had triumphed, and that the coup plotters would, from now on, think a hundred times before they surrendered.
When the civil authority orders the arrest of high-ranking officials, there is nothing to stop the Brazilian democrat from rejoicing. The symbolic effect is very strong.
Another important message is less clear: the barracks, having done what it did, is exempt from responsibility. It is not up to you to answer for the suffering and trauma that Brazilians experience.
With this legitimacy, it maintains its eternal independence with regard to political power. He even gains the morale to bargain prison conditions for his people when the conditions are not there to grant them pardon.
The belief that the Court has a leadership role in preserving democracy confuses the political struggle. Democracy is achieved in vociferous political and ideological confrontations. It is not a gift from a court, a parliament, a charismatic leader, or a barracks.
The unprecedented nature of the arrest of high-ranking officials is impressive. But, as a well-known Sicilian writer put it, there are new things that leave everything the same.
*Manuel Domingos Neto and Doctorate in History from the University of Paris. author What to Do with the Army – Notes for the New National Defense (Reading desk).