Brazil Trials Distance Military Officers from Politics
and weakens the Far-Right
HAVANA TIMES – The trial of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and seven other alleged ringleaders of the coup attempts of late 2022 and early 2023 may define the political future of Brazil, by putting an end to the past practice of military participation in the governments of the extreme right.
Three top-ranking Army generals and an admiral who commanded the Navy are among those indicted in a judicial process that began on Tuesday, March 25. Also accused are a lieutenant-colonel and Bolsonaro himself, who is a retired Army captain. The court decision to proceed with the trial was announced on Tuesday, March 25, following a two-day hearing before Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) in the capital Brasilia.
The only two civilians among the eight in the dock are Anderson Torres, former minister of security, and Alexandre Ramagem, currently a deputy, who commanded the Brazilian Intelligence Agency during Bolsonaro’s government (2019-2022). The trial and sentencing is expected to extend through most of 2025.
Military intervention has been a constant in the history of Brazil, as a factor in the rise of the extreme right to power and other major political pivots. It began in 1889, with the military coup that ended the monarchy and established the Republic, and culminated with the military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.
Up until now, this recurring pattern of military intervention has distinguished the Brazilian ultra-right from its counterparts in other countries, including the United States. It has been the source of inspiration for Bolsonarism, synonymous with Brazil’s far right movement.
Bolsonaro’s rise to power
Bolsonaro won the country’s presidency in 2018, in large part by presenting himself as a military leader, focused on restoring military honor and defending the military dictatorship’s role in stopping communism.
He attended the army’s officer training academy from 1973 to 1977, and rose to the rank of captain. In 1988, he left the military, where he was accused of indiscipline and of planning to place bombs in military units to demand better salaries. Bolsonaro himself claimed that the Brazilian High Command was dismissing officers due to budgetary cuts, not because they were displaying “deviations of conduct”, as the command had told the press. The court eventually exonerated him.
He was then elected federal deputy seven consecutive times. He never stood out in the legislative activity, in which he was considered of the “lower clergy”, but he did defend the military and its dictatorship, including torturers accused of murdering dozens of opponents in the early 70s.
His discourse, described as “repugnant” by democrats, was notable for his hatred of the left, especially the Workers’ Party (PT), then embroiled in two major corruption scandals. That plus the economic recession of 2015-2016, made Bolsonaro’s party the principal alternative to the progressive governments that had ruled Brazil since the return of democracy in 1985.
His identification with the armed forces also contributed to his rise. In Brazil, this body enjoyed popular confidence despite the excesses of the dictatorship, unlike neighboring countries such as Argentina and Chile, where the generals were excoriated and in some cases tried and imprisoned.
His rise in the 2018 presidential race was considered an electoral phenomenon, thanks in great part to his intensive use of social media. However, once in power, his rule followed a frequent pattern for extreme right leaders – a failure, due to the clash between his denials of science and the actual advances of the post-world war world civilization, as well as of democracy itself.
His disastrous management of the Covid-19 pandemic, and his failure to protect the environment and the rights of women and black Brazilians fanned the rejection and defeat of his 2022 reelection bid, despite a flood of demagogic measures that he adopted in the period preceding the election. The same thing occurred with US President Donald Trump in 2020.
The military distances itself from politics
The participation of thousands of military officers in Bolsonaro’s government caused a drop in public confidence in the Armed Forces, a loss of trust evidenced by several national and international surveys. As a result, the military opted to withdraw from politics.
Reflecting the new situation of the military, General Walter Braga Netto – former Army Chief of Staff, former Minister of Defense, and Bolsonaro’s vice-presidential candidate in 2022 – has been imprisoned in a Rio de Janeiro barracks since December 14, 2024, for attempting to obstruct investigations into his case.
This is the first time that a general has been arrested by order of the civilian justice system. Other generals have been imprisoned in the past, but via proceedings conducted within the military itself.
The military in Brazil has the privilege of having its own justice system to judge military crimes. In general, accused officers are acquitted or at most forced to retire, as happened to Bolsonaro in 1988.
Braga Netto, accused of leading and organizing the coup actions, is a symbol of the interference of the military in Brazilian politics and its consequent degradation.
As a result, the current commanders of all three branches of the armed forces appear actively convinced that the military should be distanced from politics, as a way to avoid internal divisions and assure the effectiveness of their mission to safeguard the national sovereignty.
Two attempts
The alleged coup attempt outlined in the March 25 hearings supposedly took place in two stages, according to investigations by the Federal Police. In December 2022, after his defeat in the October elections, Bolsonaro is accused of seeking the support of the military chiefs to remain in power.
The commanders of the Army – Brazil’s main force – and of the Air Force rejected the adventure, but Admiral Admir Garnier, head of the Navy at that time, accepted. Garnier has also been remanded to trial by the Supreme Court.
Prosecutors allege that the coup actions of that first phase included plans to assassinate then president-elect, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who would take office on January 1st, as well as his vice-president Geraldo Alckmin, and Federal Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Morales. The magistrate also serves as a rapporteur investigating other activities of the extreme right, such as the dissemination of false news.
After the traditional coup was thwarted in December, an unsuccessful attempt was made to provoke a military intervention on January 8, 2023, with the mobilization of thousands of activists who invaded and caused major damage to the headquarters of the National Congress, the offices of the Presidency, and the Federal Supreme Court, all in Brasília.
Since Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat, his followers had remained camped in front of military barracks in several Brazilian cities, demanding “military intervention” to keep the ex-captain in power.
At the time of the mass mobilization, Bolosnaro was opportunely outside of Brazil. His presence in Orlando, Florida, since December 30 2022, makes it difficult to tie him legally to the mob violence on January 8, although he’s accused of coordinating the action from afar.
Bolsonaro and the seven others currently scheduled to go on trial for coup attempts are considered the leading or “crucial” nucleus, in the language of the prosecution. However, they actually comprise the first of five groups into which the Attorney General’s Office has divided the 34 defendants, 24 of whom are military personnel.
This division is based on the different functions exercised in the conspiracy: criminal organization, coordination of police forces, dissemination of disinformation, tactical actions to pressure military commanders, and neutralization of authorities.
These groups will face separate trials. But the Federal Supreme Court has already sentenced 503 participants in the invasion of the seats of the three branches of government to prison terms ranging from one to 17 years. Of these, 60 are on the run.
Many legal experts have expressed concern that the jail sentences were overly long. For many of the defendants, they represented the combined sentences for five crimes: attempt to violently destroy the democratic state, coup d’état, criminal conspiracy, damage to public property and to property protected for its historical value.
Another 542 defendants acknowledged their guilt and signed plea agreements that reduced their sentences to fines, compensation to the State for the destroyed assets, obligatory attendance at a course on democracy, and absence from social networks for determined periods.
First published in Spanish by IPS and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
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