Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has dismissed the commander of the Army, General Júlio César de Arruda, apparently because of his differences with the government over the fate of a colonel considered sympathetic to former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Arruda’s replacement will be the current commander of the Southeast military region, general Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, according to the Brazilian newspaper ‘Estadao’. The Army has confirmed the dismissal, but has not given any specific reason.
On Friday, Arruda participated in a meeting with the Minister of Defense, José Múcio Monteiro, and the commanders of the Navy and the Air Force in which there was allegedly strong tension over the government’s intention to annul the appointment of lieutenant colonel Mauro Cesar Barbosa Cid, as commander of a battalion in Goiania. The one known as ‘Colonel Cid’ is considered very close to Bolsonaro.
The portal Metrópole reported on Friday that the Federal Supreme Court is investigating Cid and financial and in-kind transactions made on behalf of Bolsonaro and former first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro.
Paiva has condemned the assault on the headquarters of the three branches of government last January 8 in Brasília. «We will continue to guarantee our democracy because democracy presupposes freedom and individual and public guarantees. It is the regime of the people, of the alternation of power, it is the vote, it is when people vote and the result of the ballot box must be respected,» he said after the assault.
Arruda would have prevented the entry of military police into the Bolsonarista camp located for weeks in front of the Army Headquarters, which was the origin of the assault on the three branches of government.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
