AND Weekly editorial – The military coup is just a hair away from being consummated

We publish an unofficial translation of the article of A Nova Democracia found on their webpage.

The denunciation of the lieutenant colonel of “Special Operations” of the Army and former aide-de-camp of Bolsonaro, Mauro Cid, was a bombshell in the middle of the room. He revealed, in a single snap, that Bolsonaro worked – yes – obstinately for institutional rupture; that the High Command of the three Armed Forces was fully aware of the purposes and even discussed the feasibility of activating its military coup plan; that the former Navy commander, Almir Garnier, gave the green light to the institutional rupture; and that the Army commander, General Freire Gomes, was against it. And what else does the Army’s “Special Operations” know and do and not have the courage to inform the Nation?

As incredible as it may seem, there are insane people shouting words of relief, especially some people in the pay of the press monopoly and this government of reactionary conciliation. They say that this is proof that, in fact, the Brazilian Army was not complicit in the institutional rupture and that this is proof of its commitment to democracy. This is what, for example, the Minister of Defense of the PT government, José Múcio, said, for whom “we owe it to the Armed Forces to maintain democracy”.

By clashing so intensively with reality, Múcio and the head of this government give evidence of senility or pure and simple greed. Because, how can they “owe the Armed Forces” the “maintenance of democracy” (of this old democracy) if it is the Armed Forces themselves that question the current legal order, advocating something even more reactionary and centralized in their tutelage?! What world have the minister and his president been in these last ten years?

Did Múcio and the president of the republic not know that, in 2016-17, the then Army commander went to several Masonic lodges to defend that the Army should “guarantee that the country emerges from the political crisis” acting as a “silent protagonist” and which should ensure that the crisis does not exceed “the limits”? Did they not see the news and did no one tell them that this same general stated, in 2017, that the Armed Forces do have the right to intervene if chaos ensues in the country, even without permission from the powers that be? And that, in 2017, this same general coerced, via Twitter, the Supreme Court keeping a then-candidate (Lula himself) in prison, directly interfering in the elections? And that, in 2022, the Army participated in the Election Transparency Commission to raise doubts in the electoral process and inflame the spirits of the social base that calls on the forces for a coup? And that, in November of that year, the Army demonstrably helped to structure the camps in front of military installations with banners demanding military intervention, and defended them, officially and publicly, as “democratic demonstrations”? (Múcio knew this and took the same position, in fact!). Don’t they know by now that, on January 7th, the intelligence bodies at the top of the Army were aware of the preparation for the Bolsonarada on the 8th, but did nothing? Don’t you know any of this? Are they silly? None of that, they know everything and more; They are cowards, negligent, they know very well that the Armed Forces institutions and their leaders are incorrigible coup-plotters. And they know that not only the “bolsonarists”, but also those they call “moderate” (in a thousand quotation marks).

Gentlemen, who doesn’t know that the complete military coup didn’t happen in November 2022 because the White House vetoed it? North American imperialism did not allow it because it considered that it would be disastrous and would only complicate the situation of the crisis of domination that permeates every system of imperialist exploitation; Clutter in their backyard is what they need least right now. The Yankees sent more than six delegations of civilians and military personnel to the country to make this clear to the active generals. And the new hero of democracy, General Freire Gomes, then commander of the Army, only did not embark because he knew that without the Yankee hand the coup would not be sustained. That’s the only reason they didn’t go ahead with the adventure, something that even Estadão editorialists advertised. Just coward, shameless cynics in the face of the nation’s misfortune lend themselves to appeasing the coup generals like Mr. Luiz Inácio and his clique do, when, at the very least, they should call for commotion across the entire country and punish them ruthlessly. The “strong arm, friendly hand” continues to wield its lurking prowess.

For its part, the military leadership knows that the country is on slippery ground and on the precipice of the demoralization of the political system and its corrupt institutions, of which the Armed Forces are no exception, quite the opposite; a situation of great economic and social instability, with enormous potential for explosion, as they felt and experienced in 2013. Revolutionary explosion, especially in the countryside, where the peasant struggle is rapidly accumulating strength to advance the never-realized secular cause of democratization of access to land. To combat the organized masses, the Armed Forces need to control the country and direct state and government policy to centralize the application of their low-intensity war against the struggle for land, which they consider “subversive action that threatens the Nation”. That is the reason of his necessary coup and interventionist action.

That’s why the government is getting dirty with fear, it licks the generals’ boots, it gives them huge funds, it gives them a captive place where they won’t be disturbed. But in doing so, opportunism only digs its own grave. After all, if the coup was not launched because the conditions were not there, what would become of this so-called “democracy” of fanfare if, for some reason such as the growth of the revolutionary struggle or due to conflicts with other powers, the Yankees came to agree and sponsor the coup agitation?

Only scoundrels and comfortable opportunists can assume that the country is experiencing times of peace and calm. It is necessary to raise firmly and loudly a wave of popular struggles that are as radical as possible, to accumulate strength to face the generals, who have not abandoned their coup impetus – they are just trying not to wear themselves out now. Otherwise, later on, it will be too late.