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Brazilian Extremists Demand Military Coup in Brazil Amid Country-Wide Marches

By teleSUR

17 March 15

 

espite many of the groups calling for Sunday's impeachment march against President Dilma Rousseff claiming they support democracy, some extreme right-wing groups are also calling for a military coup.

As teleSUR has reported, thousands of Brazilians are using Twitter to reject a coup d'etat and are accusing the largest media network due its leading role ahead of the opposition's demonstrations.

President Rousseff has called an emergency cabinet meeting for Sunday, to follow the opposition protests. Former president Ignacio Lula Da Silva called an extraordinary meeting of the Workers Party (PT) to warn them on the possibility of a military coup, as the video below shows.

Joao Pedro Stedile, leader of the Movement of Landless Campesinos (MST) – the biggest social movement in Brazil – also called upon his supporters to be alert, during Friday's rally.

“In 1961, the Brazilian elite tried to stage a coup … afterwards, in 1964 they were able to do the coup. We will not accept a coup,” he said.

Disguised as “Constitutional Military Intervention,” some protesters have been calling for the military to take over the country in order to organise a trial of and convict President Rousseff, the former President Lula Da Silva and other members of their government under corruption charges, since October last year.

The most influential exponent of this proposal has been General Paulo Chagas, of the Brazilian Army Reserve, who issued a video on Youtube last year calling for soldiers to take control, in order to avoid what he believes is a communist dictatorship ruling Brazil.

On November 3, 2014, a group of soldiers staged a demonstration in Fortaleza – one of Brazil's most important cities – calling for a military intervention against Rousseff's government.

“The army will free Brazil from communism” was the main chant of the demonstrators, coinciding with Chagas' Youtube call.

Some of the non-military protesters held banners claiming Rousseff's re-election was fraudulent.

Another bigger protest was held in Sao Paulo, later in November, also calling for the military to take over and trial the president.

Also in November 2014, the Attorney General of Joinville city issued an open letter to the military calling for them to revolt against the PT government's communism, praising the 1964 coup that initiated the twenty year military dictatorship, that lasted from 1964-1985.

In February 2015, hundreds marched in Sao Paulo calling for the military to take over, showing the movement had grown.

Since last year’s presidential election, won by Dilma Rousseff, protests calling for impeachment and against the president have continued, and increasingly so the presence of groups calling for a “Constitutional Military Intervention.”

The made-up concept is based on Article 142 of the Brazilian Constitution which interprets that the Armed Forces are responsible for guaranteeing the division of power and the law and order.

All legal analysts conclude that this interpretation is not legally valid, however, opposition and  anti-corruption groups are using it as a proposed solution.

Several Facebook pages and groups and Twitter users are calling for a military intervention in the wider context of Sunday's protests.

The tweet below reads “We don’t have any other option, we won’t be taken by the 3 powers that joined effort to steal from us everyday more #MilitaryInterventionNow.”

NÃO TEMOS OUTRA ESCOLHA, A NÃO SER TIRAR OS 3 PODERES Q SE JUNTARAM PARA NOS ROUBAR CADA VEZ MAIS #IntervencaoMilitar pic.twitter.com/bxbNjcgC50

— Renatinha (@RenatinhaVip1) March 11, 2015

The opposition leaders organizing the nation-wide demonstrations have distanced themselves from the pro-military intervention groups, claiming these are small and extreme. However they they share the demand for the the end of President Rousseff's government, despite its recent electoral mandate.

Influential opposition lawmakers have made concerning declarations even before Sunday's protests. For example, the congressman in Rio de Janeiro with the highest number of votes, Eduardo Bolsonaro, said in November that activists should carry their weapons to the impeachment marches against Dilma.

Bolsonaro told the Spanish daily El Pais that the opposition had to react to the government's efforts that “are taking us closer to becoming like Cuba or Venezuela”.

Both General Chagas and Bolsonaro are calling for their supporters to march on Sunday.

Post by Intervenção Militar-Oficial.

Brazilian journalist Mauro Santaya has been warning and debunking the rhetoric being used to lure the armed forces into rebelling against the government. The logic of the right is that both Lula and Dilma are against the armed forces due to their past role in opposing Brazil’s military dictatorship.

Despite many military leaders publicly stating that their loyalty to democracy cannot be breached, the pro-military dictatorship sentiment in Brazil is not yet a thing of the past.

Carlos Carvalho Junior, a 47 year old businessman who created the biggest Facebook group on military intervention with over 48,000 members, explained to BBC the idea that the group would like to see.

“Every one (the president, ministers, judges and lawmakers) that were found guilty (of corruption charges) will be separated from the government immediately (by the army),” he explains, proposing Military Tribunals to judge them.

The calls for an intervention have also reached the White House. A group of 130,000 people signed a petition to the U.S. government, inciting it to act against an alleged “bolivarian communist model” which they claim is being implemented by President Rousseff.

Sociologist Valeriano Costa, Professor at the University of Campinas, believes the argument held by these groups is the same as the one held before the 1945 coup against President Getulio Vargas.

“At the time, the main argument (in favor of the military intervention) was that the political powers had been corrupted, by corruption itself and by communism. Therefore, the elected government was illegitimate. The argument they are using today is basically copied from that one,” he explains.

Although it is clear that those calling openly for the army to intervene are an extremist minority, the underlying ideals are not different to the ones being used by the impeachment campaigners.

“Fora Dilma” (Oust Dilma) and “RIP Dilma” have become common place references to Sunday's protests and are popular in chants during anti-government demonstrations.

On Saturday, as she has been doing throughout the week, President Rousseff once more warned  the opposition to protest peacefully and to avoid recurring to violence.

Faced with the growing concern of a coup attempt, the right-wing Social Democratic Party of Brazil (PSDB), whose candidate Aecio Neves lost against Rousseff by a narrow margin in the 2014 elections, has clarified that it supports neither impeachment nor a military intervention.

However, the PSDB has called upon its militants to march on Sunday.

The now Senator and former Vice-presidential candidate for PSDB, Aloysio Nunes Ferreira, expressed his position on Thursday this week.

“I do not want impeachment, I want to see Dilma bleed,” he said, during a seminar organized at the right-wing Fernando Henrique Cardoso Institute.

Despite the chances of an armed coup on Sunday being low, the march could set the stage for future efforts.

Brazilian history can be revealing and may explain why many activists, political leaders and media outlets are paying close attention to the most radical opposition groups, who are leading these coup efforts.