By criticizing his army commanders, Brazilian president risks undermining his own efforts to mend relations with generals
(Bloomberg) — By seeing off an insurrection attempt just days in office, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva bolstered his position against political opponents. Now he’s in danger of straining an already delicate relationship with Brazil’s military.
Active-duty and retired military officials, as well as people close to Lula and his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, said in interviews that the Brazilian president’s strategy to restore political control after the Jan. 8 riots in Brasilia risks undermining his own efforts to mend relations with the generals. All requested anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
While none of the dozen people Bloomberg News spoke to worry about a coup, their main concern is that Lula, after appointing a defense minister with the ability to rebuild bridges with the military, is now squandering the opportunity by stepping up his rhetoric against the commanders of the troops.
The Brazilian president accused the armed forces of doing “nothing against those who were demanding a coup in front of military headquarters” after pro-Bolsonaro groups stormed government buildings in the nation’s capital, producing severe damage. He also said family members of the generals were spotted in those camps, suggesting officials were sympathetic to the radical movement, against the rules of the institution.
“The armed forces are not the moderator power they think they are,” Lula told reporters on Thursday. “They have a role established in the constitution, which is to defend the Brazilian people and our sovereignty against possible external enemies. That’s what I want them to do well.”
Such criticism could alienate moderates and give voice to more politically engaged members of the armed forces, the people said. Those would be more likely to encourage anti-government demonstrations which, if continued, could bring the country to a halt, jeopardizing Lula’s tricky political balancing act amid an already fragile economy.
A spokesman for Lula didn’t reply to a request for comment. Earlier this week, Justice Minister Flavio Dino spoke in favor of the armed forces, saying “they have so far remained faithful to democratic legality.” The press office for the military command of Brasilia didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Some of Lula’s allies also said they expect the president will be able to fine tune his message and patch up the relationship.
Read More: Brazil on Alert as Government Sees Risk of Fresh Protests
Mutual Mistrust
Even before the riots, the new government’s approach to the military was an open question. While Lula himself governed two terms between 2003 and 2011 without major clashes with generals, many of his party’s members were seen with suspicion in some military circles for their role in the resistance to the brutal dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985.
Bolsonaro’s ties with the armed forces posed another challenge. Himself a former army captain, he was able to co-opt part of an institution that was designed to be apolitical by giving military officials more than 6,000 jobs in his administration, including several cabinet positions. He also spoke fondly of the dictatorship and claimed to embody values of order, family and religion that resonate with them.
Amid that background, Bolsonaro supporters who refused to accept his defeat in an October presidential runoff had a clear goal when storming the nation’s capital on Sunday: unleash enough chaos to trigger a military intervention which, they believed, would unseat Lula.
Read More: Bolsonaro’s Erratic Behavior is Making His Military Backers Nervous
The plan, which never had much standing, was even less convincing after the ransacking of Brasilia’s government buildings forced the high command of the armed forces to further distance itself from the conservative leader and his radical backers. With broad support from local authorities and the international community, Lula then moved to reassert his authority. Police arrested about 1,500 rioters on site and quickly disbanded groups of Bolsonaro backers who had been camping in front of military headquarters across the country.
Yet tensions are expected to continue for some time, according to the people, who include some who acted as a bridge between past Lula’s administrations and the armed forces.
While it’s true that army commanders didn’t move against protesters stationed at their door, thus out of the reach of regular police forces, one retired general argued that calming down demonstrators isn’t the job of the military, but of politicians.
Moreover, as more than one of the interviewees put it, Brazil’s high polarization and Lula’s insistence on talking mostly to his base may put off moderate Brazilians who gave him a razor-thin victory on Oct. 30, with just 50.9% of the valid votes. The same political polarization has contaminated the armed forces, especially rank-and-file officials and even a few generals whom Bolsonaro brought into his orbit of influence, the people said.
Soft Approach
Lula, in a first move to restore frayed relations with the armed forces, appointed Jose Mucio Monteiro as defense chief. A seasoned politician with good links among the generals, Mucio was also Lula’s institutional affairs minister between 2007 and 2009.
With Lula’s blessing, he opted for an engagement strategy in his first week as minister, describing camps filled with Bolsonaro’s supporters in front of military headquarters as an expression of democracy, and saying he even had family members in one of them. He bet campgrounds would die down with time, even when it was already clear that they were being used by radicals to plot actions against the new government, including a bomb scare near Brasilia’s airport in late December.
The same camps served as a base for the rioters who stormed Brasilia on Jan. 8, an episode akin to the invasion of the US Capitol two years ago.
Mucio is now under fire from more leftist members of Lula’s coalition, who have called for his resignation on grounds of negligence. The president on Thursday backed his minister, saying he will continue on the job “because I trust him.”
But Lula’s latest remarks suggest the soft approach seen in the beginning of his government may have its days numbered.
–With assistance from Daniel Carvalho.
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