Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s new president, has sacked the army chief following allegations that the general tried to shield right-wing protesters from prosecution following the Brasilia uprising on January 8.
General Julio César de Arruda, who joined in late December, was fired on Saturday, nearly two weeks after Bolsonaro supporters wreaked havoc in the Brazilian capital. Lula’s government referred to the invasion as a failed coup attempt.
Arruda reportedly prevented police from capturing suspected rioters who were seeking safety in a camp opposite the Brasilia army headquarters the night of the incident. Some of Lula’s friends believe that Arruda has political connections to Bolsonaro.
“Here you are not going to arrest people,” Arruda told Lula’s Justice Minister Flávio Dino, the Washington Post reported.
“Many people from the military police were complicit. There were a lot of people from the armed forces in here. [the palace] who were complicit,” the veteran left-wing politician said four days after the attack.
“This guy has managed to contaminate all the armed forces,” Lula added of Bolsonaro, who fled to the United States the night of the January 1 inauguration and refused to accept defeat in last October’s elections.
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According to O Globo, Lula has fired at least 80 military personnel from their posts within his government in the past five days in an apparent effort to purge fervent Bolsonaro supporters.
General Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, 62, commander of the military command in charge of southeastern São Paulo, will replace Arruda.
Ribeiro Paiva called on the troops to accept the result of last October’s elections, which Lula won by approximately two million votes, in a speech shared on social media on Friday.
“It doesn’t matter [what the result of an election is], we must respect. It may not always be what we want, but that doesn’t matter,” said Ribeiro Paiva, whoever their commander in chief is, the military will do their job.
(With agency contributions)
