The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, received this Tuesday a Unusual military parade in Brasília, seen by the opposition as a way to intimidate Congress during a key vote for the Government. This military action takes place in the midst of a climate of tension due to the attacks by the president and his followers on the electoral system.
O convoy of armored military vehicles of the three Armed Forces on Tuesday, he paraded along the Esplanada dos Ministérios, the central avenue of the Brazilian capital where all the buildings of the public power are located.
The operation organized by the Navy has been taking place annually since 1988 in Formosa, about 300 kilometers from Brasília, but it is the the first time that Rio’s armored vehicles pass through Brasília and are received by a president of the Republic.
Accompanied by the three commanders of the Armed Forces, Bolsonaro, captain of the Army reserve, accompanied the parade from the gates of the Planalto Palace and received an invitation to participate in the military training that will take place on August 16 in Formosa.
Criticism for the show of force
The parade was heavily criticized by the Brazilian opposition, which accused Bolsonaro of trying to hold a show of force on the same day that the Chamber of Deputies intends to start voting on the president’s proposal to resume voting on paper, as a complement to the current electronic voting system.
Bolsonaro, who will seek re-election next year, insists, without evidence, that electronic voting machines encourage “fraud” and therefore pressurize Congress to pass a mixed electronic and paper voting system.
“It is still unacceptable that the Armed Forces allow their image to be exposed in this way, before suggest the use of force in support of the anti-democratic and coup-based proposal, defended by the President of the Republic, “nine opposition parties highlighted today in a statement, among them the Workers Party (PT) of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
In turn, the governor of São Paulo, João Doria, stated that the “unprecedented and unnecessary parade of war tanks” in Brasília is a “clear threat to democracy”. “The initiative flirts with authoritarianism again. Brazil wants democracy, respect for the Constitution and freedom,” said Doria, Bolsonaro’s main antagonist among conservatives.
Former president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, also from the conservative camp, compared Bolsonaro to former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori. “The last president who took a ride in a tank ended badly with the government and was arrested: Alberto Fujimori, in Peru,” Maia said.
Amid mounting criticism, The Navy said in a statement that the parade was planned before the vote in the plenary of the Chamber, scheduled for this Tuesday, and that, therefore, there is no “relationship” between the two events.
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