Former GSI minister criticizes Lula for statements against the military: “deep cowardice”

General Sérgio Etchegoyen, former minister of the Institutional Security Office (GSI) during the government of former president Michel Temer, criticized President Lula (PT) for the statements made by the PT against Armed Forces personnel after acts of vandalism on the day January 8th. In an interview granted on Tuesday (17th) to the TV Pamba channel, in Rio Grande do Sul, the general stated that Lula uses the “old tactic of looking for culprits” and that he acts with “profound cowardice”.

“After the sad episode of the 8th, President Lula, supreme commander of the Armed Forces, makes a clear statement to the press that he does not trust the Armed Forces. How do you pacify the country from there? How do you pacify the Armed Forces, which are a State institution with which the PT governments lived together for 16 years? Quartered, doing their duty, doing what they were supposed to do, without any trauma,” he said.

“Worse. A President of the Republic, supreme commander of the Armed Forces, who goes to the press to say that he does not trust his Armed Forces, knows right away that no general will call a press conference to respond to the offence. So this is an act of profound cowardice. Because he knows that no one will answer. He knows that no one is going to dispute what he is saying. In other words, it is the old technique of looking for culprits”, said Etchegoyen.

“It will not be by having accusations or listening to insults from the supreme commander that he will have the respect of the Armed Forces. It is my opinion”, he declared.