Mourão says that Lula wants to feed the crisis with the Army – 01/21/2023 – Politics

Former Vice President of the Republic and senator-elect Hamilton Mourão (Republicanos-RS) stated that the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) wants to fuel the crisis with the Armed Forces and in particular with the Army by dismissing the commander of the troop.

Lula dismissed the commander of the Army, General Júlio Cesar de Arruda, in the midst of an open crisis of confidence after the January 8 attacks in Brasilia. The decision was communicated to the military this Saturday (21).

According to reports by Lula’s allies and generals heard by Sheetthe main reason for the dismissal was that Arruda had resisted the request of the Minister of Defense, José Múcio Monteiro, that Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid be removed from command of an Army battalion in Goiânia (GO).

“If the reason was an attempt to ask for the head of a soldier, without an investigation, it shows that the government really wants to fuel a crisis with the Forces and in particular with the Army. Sheet.

Cid was an assistant to former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and, as Sheet revealed, entered the sights of the PF (Federal Police) after suspicious transactions were identified in the office of the representative.

On Friday (20), after the Metrópoles portal also reported the case, Lula ordered Múcio to remove Cid from his command role. The Defense Minister spoke to Arruda overnight and he reportedly resisted the order.

Another factor in the decision, according to Lula’s allies, was the crisis of the coup camps in front of the Army HQ. The high point was the veto that Arruda and the Military commander of Planalto, General Gustavo Dutra, gave to the withdrawal of extremist Bolsonarists from the barracks on the night of January 8.

The new head of the Force is the current military commander for the Southeast (responsible for São Paulo), General Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva. This week, he had made an incisive speech in defense of institutionality, asking for respect for the results of the elections and affirming the Army as non-political and non-partisan.