Bolsonaro Regime Teeters As All Military Chiefs Resign

The Guardian reports:

The commanders of the Brazilian army, navy and air force – Gen Edson Leal Pujol, Adm Ilques Barbosa and Lt-Brig Antônio Carlos Bermudez – met with the president’s new minister on Tuesday morning and reportedly tendered their resignations during a dramatic and heated encounter.

On Tuesday afternoon the defence ministry confirmed all three would be replaced, a political earthquake that rattled a country already grappling with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.

The Folha de São Paulo newspaper said that never before in Brazilian history had the heads of all three branches of the military resigned out of disagreement with a president.

NPR reports:

Bolsonaro is a retired army captain, and he has packed his government with military officials. He spoke recently about using the military to oppose lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions.

When Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo left on Monday, he made clear he’s against politicizing Brazil’s military; now the service chiefs are following him out of the administration.

The resignation of the far-right Araújo as foreign minister came after the country’s diplomats and members of Congress accused him of tarnishing Brazil’s standing and putting it in a poor position to obtain vaccines from other countries.

“The last time @traumann could remember an army chief being removed in such unusual circumstances was in 1977 when the hardline general Sílvio Frota was sacked after trying to unseat Brazil’s then dictator Ernesto Geisel” https://t.co/b1hTJzxS23

— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) March 30, 2021