President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).| Photo: Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Lula (PT) said this Monday (23) that the new commander of the Army, Tomás Miguel Miné Ribeiro Paiva, thinks “exactly” like him. Paiva will replace General Júlio Cesar de Arruda, dismissed this Saturday by the president.

“I chose an Army commander who could not work out [Arruda], and chose another commander. Had a nice talk with the commander [Paiva]and he thinks exactly like everything I have been saying about the issue of the Armed Forces”, said the Chief Executive.

Lula made the statement during a press conference in Argentina. The president participates in the summit meeting of the Conference of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (CELAC). The PT affirmed that “the Armed Forces cannot be in the hands of politicians”.

“I think that all careers in the State cannot get involved in politics while exercising their function. Because these people have stability, these people do not belong to any government, these people belong to the Brazilian State, so they need to learn democratically,” he said.