Lula dismisses General Júlio César, commander of the Army

Military

The military had assumed the position on an interim basis on December 30 of last year

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) dismissed General Júlio César de Arruda from the command of the Army this Saturday (21), and his replacement will be the current Military Commander of the Southeast, General Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva.

Arruda had taken office on an interim basis on December 30, in the last days of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, and remained in office in agreement with the transition team. The resignation information was confirmed by GLOBO.

This Friday, Lula had met at the Planalto Palace with the commanders of the Armed Forces and the Minister of Defense, José Múcio, after having expressed distrust in the military responsible for the security of the headquarters of the Federal Executive during the terrorist acts on 8 January.

The strain on Lula’s relationship with the armed forces was accentuated after the attacks at the beginning of the month. On the occasion, Bolsonarist coup plotters destroyed the headquarters of the three Powers of the Republic. The president suspects the connivance of the military with the invasion of the Planalto Palace.

“There were a lot of conniving people. There were a lot of people from the PM conniving. A lot of people from the Armed Forces here conniving. I am convinced that the door of the Planalto Palace was opened for these people to enter because there is no broken door. In other words, someone facilitated their entry here”, said Lula, during breakfast with journalists at the Planalto Palace last week.

In an interview with GloboNews this week, Lula also stated that military personnel who wanted to do politics should withdraw from the institution.

“And I want us to get back to normalcy, that’s it. People are there to fulfill their duties and not to play politics. Whoever wants to do politics, take off the uniform, resign from your position, create a political party and go to politics”, he said at the time.

Days after the attack, the Minister of the Civil House also harshly criticized the inaction of the military in relation to the coup camps in front of the Army HQ. “It is a consensus that the performance of the military was far from efficient”, said Costa at the time.

*With information from Extra

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