After being taken over, Lula launches a counterattack | He condemned the military’s complicity in the coup in Brazil

from Brazil

Lula’s counterattack came. The new Brazilian president condemned the military’s complicity in last Sunday’s coup attempt, when thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro occupied the palaces of the Presidency, Parliament and the Federal Supreme Court in central Brasilia.

With glass still around the Planalto Palace, the president provided details of what happened as reports continued to emerge about this assault on democracy, seven years after the coup that toppled Dilma Rousseff. Lula yesterday detailed the dynamics of the invasions and his response plan.

facts

At four o’clock on Sunday afternoon, the vanguard of fighters wearing the yellow jerseys of the Brazilian team, the distinctive clothing of these tropical phalanxes, climbed the slightly sloping ramp of the property and immediately entered the main hall, before the unchanging gaze of the army. on duty

“I’m sure Planaldo’s gate was opened for people to enter easily. See the gate is not broken, that means someone facilitated their entry,” said Lula. “Many members of the armed forces inside Planaldo colluded with them (Bolsonaristas),” he stressed. Additionally, despite rumors of an opposition rally since Friday, the number of players was lower than usual.

strategy

Most of the attackers came from the military headquarters in the center of Brasilia, where they camped for seventy days, during which actions were taken against the military intervention and the “fraud” that did not allow Lula to beat Bolsonaro. Election from October 30. At some of these rallies, more than one speaker talked about eliminating Lula and proposed bringing arms to the camp: all this before the complacent gaze of generals and high officials who had their offices in the general headquarters located six kilometers away. From Planaldo.

The call to mobilize armed activists in the camp is similar to that made by Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro when he proposed a national rally of Hunters, Shooters and Collectors Clubs (CACs, in Portuguese) in support of his father, Jair Bolsonaro. These groups of CACs grew exponentially during the previous government, which facilitated the issuance of almost non-requirement cards and freed up the sale of heavy weapons, leading to the creation of a shadow army.

At a breakfast for journalists yesterday, Lula dismissed a military conspiracy behind last Sunday’s attacks. The first step was to set three palaces on fire and cause “confusion” while “the army and police together” idled the attackers.

Faced with a situation of total uncontrollability, the government would be forced to seek the intervention of the armed forces through a law and order guarantee decree, which would give broad powers to the military establishment and bring civilian authority to its knees. Lula said Brasilia police, noticing the military trap, intervened and called in the National Guard, deciding to restore “normalcy” without asking military headquarters for help.

“If I had signed the decree on Sunday to guarantee law and order, I would have abdicated my responsibility as president and there would have been a coup that some people wanted to happen,” he explained. “In other words, Lula would have actually stopped exercising. The government to accept some generals,” the president said in his most lucid reference to the fact that military power was behind the forces. He then said “The armed forces are not the moderating force of the republic as they believe. The role of the armed forces is defined in the constitution. The role of the armed forces is to protect our sovereignty against potential external enemies.”

“unbalanced”

On Sunday, Lula identified Bolsonaro as the man responsible for the failed coup and reviewed all the subversive maneuvers promoted during his tenure. Since 2021, when Donald Trump promoted the takeover of the Capitol in Washington, the former Brazilian captain began to justify this kind of subversion of democracy under the pretext of fraud. Lula vowed that the attack on the Brasilia palaces would not have happened had it not been for the “instigation” of Bolsonaro’s plot, as he again this Thursday blamed his predecessor, whom he described as “unbalanced” and “genocide”.

The leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) expressed his desire to investigate what happened and to bring about justice, but promised that “my government will not carry out systematic persecution against anyone” and that he was not going to fight Bolsonaro. Because my mandate is to fight against hunger (…) I don’t want to give the impression that there will be persecution.”

Democratize communication

During a nearly two-hour conversation in Planaldo yesterday, Lula promised frequent and respectful meetings with journalists, resuming regular meetings from his first two terms in office between 2003 and 2010. The President was accompanied by his wife Rosangela “Janja” Silva. , and Minister of Social Communication Paulo Pimenta, a deputy identified in the battle for information democratization and a critic of private news agencies.

Sorry, no

With a long militancy in the PT, the sociologist “Zanja” is a kind of minister without a department, her husband entrusted important tasks such as organizing the January 1 inauguration celebrations and social movements, establishing a dialogue with the people’s natives. People of Afro-descendant. Aniel Franco, sister of the councilwoman killed in Rio de Janeiro by two ex-police officers, was among the people most praised by “Janja” during the inauguration of ministers of indigenous peoples, Sonia Zwajajara, and ministers of racial equality.

At that event, the slogan “No amnesty” was raised, and thousands of PT supporters chanted the same when they received the president’s sash on January 1. The slogan summarizes the demand to investigate, prosecute and punish Bolsonaro and his ministers for crimes such as the genocide of Amazonian indigenous peoples committed between 2019 and 2022, or the hundreds of thousands of Covid patients who died from neglecting vaccinations. As of this Sunday, the demand for justice also applies to those responsible for the attempted coup.