Military can be punished for celebrating anniversary of coup – 03/30/2023 – Politics

The commander of the Army, General Tomás Paiva, told interlocutors that the Force will punish officers who commemorate the anniversary of the military coup this Friday (31) or participate in events organized by reserve soldiers.

According to reports made to Sheet, the guidance was passed on to general officers. The main concern is with the expected movements among reservists in Rio de Janeiro.

For this, Force officers will be attentive to the movement in the Military Club — a group of reserve members who will promote a lunch, in Rio, to celebrate the 1964 coup.

The event is convened under the nickname “Democratic Movement of 1964”, with admission at R$ 90 and restricted to members and guests. Generals heard by Sheet state that the presence of active duty officers at Clube Militar events is not rare, especially since reservists have active duty family members.

Tomás’ initiative is not the result of direct guidance from the Minister of Defense, José Múcio Monteiro, but was taken after the Ministry’s decision to remain silent on the anniversary of the 1964 coup.

Only the plan to ignore the date was agreed between Múcio and commanders Tomás Paiva (Army), Marcos Olsen (Navy) and Marcelo Damasceno (Aeronautics), in informal conversations.

The folder confirmed to the report that it will not issue notes on the day. “The ministry will not release any communiqué or agenda regarding the date,” said the press office.

Members of the Ministry of Defense say, with reservation, that the decision to ignore the date was the way found to avoid crises on the date both with the military and with the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government.

Silence is still the middle ground between the celebrations to date, made in the last four years under the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, and the release of a statement in repudiation of the military coup, which, in the Defense assessment, could erode the relationship of Mucio especially with low-ranking officers.

Other areas of government have also decided to ignore the date. The Ministry of Human Rights, for example, will not issue any statement repudiating the military coup on its anniversary.

On the other hand, in recent days, the folder has organized the “Never Again Week”, programming with a series of agendas aimed at preserving memory, truth and justice about the dictatorship period.

The week culminated in the first session of the Amnesty Commission, this Thursday, on the eve of the anniversary of the 1964 coup. At the meeting, the collegiate reversed claims for compensation denied by the Bolsonaro government, in judgments considered unfair.

“Rejecting the crimes and violations of human rights that occurred during the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship does not mean, therefore, criticizing the Armed Forces, but pointing to a period in history that everyone, without exception, must leave behind,” said the Minister of Human Rights, Silvio Almeida, during the event.

“And this will not happen by silencing this period, but by knowing it deeply so that we do not let it be reproduced in the present, as it does today by regrettable acts of violence and threats against citizens and democratic institutions.”

After the return of the Amnesty Commission, the ministry now articulates the recreation of the Commission for Dead and Missing, extinguished by Bolsonaro.

Demonstrations against the dictatorship have also been carried out by the EBC (Empresa Brasil de Comunicação), which planned a special program this week to show films and organize debates on the “true dictatorial character of the 1964 military coup”, according to one of its notices.

“We understand that it is important that those who did not live through this period in Brazil’s history know the harm caused by authoritarian regimes and understand the benefits of democracy”, said the EBC in a note.

The Defense Ministry’s decision to ignore the anniversary of the military coup breaks a cycle of four consecutive years in which, under Bolsonaro, the government commemorated the dictatorship in official communiqués.

For the past four years, the Ministry of Defense has published orders of the day in celebration of the 1964 military coup. The commemoration was an order given by the former president.

“Our president has already ordered the Ministry of Defense to carry out the due commemorations in relation to March 31, 1964, including the agenda, sponsored by the Ministry of Defense, which has already been approved by our president”, said in 2019 the then spokesman voice of the Presidency, General Otávio Rêgo Barros.

After that, the then ministers Fernando Azevedo and Braga Netto released communiqués about the day, which were read at military barracks and events scheduled for March 31.

In 2020, Azevedo wrote that “the 1964 Movement is a milestone for Brazilian democracy. Much more for what it avoided”. And he added: “Brazilian society, businessmen and the press understood the threats at that moment, allied themselves and reacted. The Armed Forces assumed the responsibility of containing that escalation, with all the foreseeable wear and tear”.

Braga Netto, in 2021, was even more incisive in his manifestation. He said that the military dictatorship deserves to be “celebrated”. “The 1964 movement is part of Brazil’s historical trajectory. This is how the events of March 31 must be understood and celebrated,” the statement concluded.

The Army even celebrated the 1964 dictatorship in official communiqués, read in barracks, before the Bolsonaro government. In Lula’s first terms, the military commander wrote four manifestations in commemoration of the anniversary of the coup.

In 2006, for example, Commander Francisco Albuquerque issued a communique for the Army to “be proud of the past”.

“The 31st of March is part of the country’s history and it is under the prism of the immutable values ​​of our Force and the conjunctural dynamics that we understand it. to the other events experienced, to underpin, in each Brazilian, the perennial conviction that preserving democracy is a national duty.”

At the time, Defense Minister Waldir Pires said he respected the position of the Army commander. “I have nothing to contest the position of anyone who interprets this way [a exaltação ao golpe militar]. I have to respect everyone’s position,” she said.

The Army stopped releasing official communiqués commemorating the military coup in 2007. In the last 16 years, the only official citations were made by the Ministry of Defense.

Shortly after assuming the Presidency, in 2011, Dilma Rousseff (PT) determined that the Armed Forces should not mention the military dictatorship in the agenda. That year, the Army even vetoed a lecture by General Augusto Heleno that would be held in commemoration of the coup.