Brazil’s Minister of Defense, José Múcio, has said that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will not pardon the military who participated in the coup acts of January 8 at the Esplanade of the Ministries and that they will go all the way to identify those who participated.
«Lula will not pardon the coup perpetrators», said Múcio, who met this Monday with the new head of the Brazilian Army, General Tomás Ribeiro, who has only been in office for a couple of days after the dismissal of Júlio Cesar de Arruda.
«He’s been good, we’ve had a long conversation. He’s excited,» said the Defense Minister of his meeting with Ribeiro, who will have to make some «internal seams» within the Army upon his arrival. «We had to do what was done,» Múcio said in relation to the dismissal of General De Arruda.
«There was a loss of trust in the relationship. It was very difficult to work like that, when there are people under suspicion», said Múcio, who was categorical in assuring that all the military personnel responsible for the January 8 attacks «will pay».
«We have to depoliticize things, who sponsored the events, who broke the law, who sought vandalism, the coup d’état, all that. (…) We will identify the culprits. We are not going to work on speculations and we are going to investigate», he said.
The change of Army commander comes amid Lula’s distrust in a part of the Armed Forces, in question due to the important weight given to it by Jair Bolsonaro in the previous administration. The coup acts in Brasilia last January 8 further deepened these misgivings and the new Brazilian president has begun to reshuffle the security cadres.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
