Coronel Cid bumps into link and crises with Bolsonaro to reach generalship – 01/30/2023 – Politics

The then Major Mauro Cesar Barbosa Cid had his passport issued to move to the United States, where he would take a course in the Brazilian Army, when his phone rang at the end of 2018.

On the cell phone screen appeared the name of General Tomás Miguel Miné Ribeiro Paiva, then chief of staff of the Army commander, who said in a few words that Cid had been appointed to be an assistant to the newly elected president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The last-minute choice made sense for Tomás and for the Army commander at the time, General Eduardo Villas Bôas: the major is the son of Mauro Cesar Lourena Cid, a reserve general and a close friend of Bolsonaro since they were both cadets in the 1977 class. from Aman (Military Academy of Agulhas Negras).

During his time at the command of the Force, Villas Bôas took advantage of his relationship in the barracks and outside it to nominate military personnel for the most diverse positions —such as General Fernando Azevedo (STF), General Ajax Porto Pinheiro (STF and STJ) and members of the Bolsonaro government.

Four years and two months later, Cid received another call from Tomás. The positions were different: the major became a lieutenant colonel and the general completed, on the morning of last Tuesday (24), his fourth day in command of the Army.

The second conversation was less friendly. In the midst of the military crisis, with the recent fall of General Júlio César de Arruda from command of the Force, Tomás wanted a reconciled suspension of Cid’s appointment to the 1st Commando Action Battalion, in Goiânia (GO).

It was a way for the commander to accept President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) order to prevent Cid from taking over the role while he is being investigated by the Federal Police for suspicious transactions in favor of Bolsonaro without having to hit the military with a pen.

The lieutenant colonel accepted given the minimal room for maneuver he would have, and the general announced the solution to the impasse to the Army High Command hours later.

THE Sheet talked to seven people close to Cid in the last five days, including classmates, friends, superiors and assistants at the Planalto Palace. They told details of the military’s trajectory in the Army and the crises arising from his work as Bolsonaro’s assistant.

Cid graduated from Aman in 2000 and, say colleagues, had no choice but to follow in his father’s footsteps. At first, she chose the artillery weapon and went on to the 8th Parachute Campaign Artillery Group, reviving Lourena Cid’s career.

The beginning of the profession was promising.

Cid finished his training at Aman in third place in his class and stood out even more from 2009 onwards, when he took first place in the master’s degree at the School for the Improvement of Officers in the Command Action Course —a degree necessary to enter the elite units of the Army.

In 2018, he completed a doctorate at the Army Command and General Staff School, with research on the consequences of sending Brazilian troops to the Middle East.

Cid also ended the study with the best grade in the class, a result that is obtained from the sum of the evaluations that the instructors make of the students and that the colleagues make among themselves.

Cid’s attributes led him to the position of artillery instructor at Aman when he was still a major —a prominent position that earned him merits in the promotion of officers.

When he was assigned to be Bolsonaro’s assistant, Cid’s path to generalship was already mapped out. Mainly considering the recent history: general officers who have played a leading role in recent years have occupied the same function, such as General Fernando Azevedo (Fernando Collor), General Tomás Paiva (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) and Brigadier Major Rui Mesquita (Lula).

The proximity to Bolsonaro also earned Cid’s father the appointment to head Apex (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency) in Miami, in the United States, in 2019.

With the help of orders, Cid built a close relationship with Bolsonaro. In addition to carrying folders with the president’s documents, the military began to do the traditional lives of the representative, on Thursdays, and became an adviser in decisions on various matters.

Fluent in English and Spanish, he used his cell phone to intermediate Bolsonaro’s conversations with authorities, celebrities and investigated people, such as Gilmar Mendes, Donald Trump, Sebastián Piñera, Silvio Santos, Pelé and Allan dos Santos.

The relationship with the former president was completely exposed when Cid came under the crosshairs of investigations reported by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court.

First for participating in the organization of the live on July 29, when the president made the toughest attack against the electoral system at the time, and then on August 4, when he helped in the leak of the secret inquiry into a hacker attack on the TSE (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral ).

It was this second investigation that complicated the situation for Mauro Cid. At first, the Federal Police were unable to access the data stored in the assistant’s cloud, whose secrecy was broken by Moraes’ determination.

The situation changed after several attempts and the help received by the team of delegate Fabio Shor, responsible for the case. Upon first access, the investigators found exchanges of suspicious transaction receipts revealed by the Sheet.

When Cid’s breach of bank secrecy was revealed, and after the aide-de-camp had already been indicted in two other lawsuits at the STF, the Army commander at the time, General Freire Gomes, was concerned about the future of the lieutenant. colonel.

According to people with knowledge of the matter, the commander and several generals even called Cid suggesting that he leave Bolsonaro’s advisory before the end of the elections, to reduce his exposure.

The lieutenant colonel, however, said that he would not feel comfortable abandoning Bolsonaro during the election period, out of loyalty to the then president, since his departure could disrupt the routine of the PL candidate.

Due to the investigations against Cid and his proximity to Bolsonaro, Lula asked the Minister of Defense, José Múcio Monteiro, that the Army take some action to prevent the lieutenant colonel from taking command of the 1st Commando Action Battalion, in Goiânia.

Cid had shown interest in assuming the position in September 2021, when the internal process for choosing new positions for the 2023-2024 biennium began. The designation was confirmed and announced in an internal Force communiqué on May 2, 2022.

The lieutenant colonel would take over the battalion in February. He had already agreed to move to Vila Militar de Goiânia and organized the enrollment of two of his three daughters in schools in the capital of Goiás.

According to reports from colleagues, Cid visited the Goiânia battalion and had been preparing the move since the beginning of January – days after leaving Bolsonaro in the United States and returning, on December 31, with the end of his role as aide-de-camp.

With the suspension of his appointment, the soldier will remain in Brasília and will assume a position in the bureaucracy of the Army HQ. According to people close to him, to avoid damage to his career, Cid will ask to assume a new battalion command this year, to change positions in 2024.