Brasilia. Statements by General Tomás Paiva, the supreme commander of the armed forces, made headlines in Brazil. Speaking to military officials, he said that the result of the presidential election was “unfortunately” not what the majority of military officials wanted, but that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory had to be respected. At the time, Paiva was chief of the Military Command Southeast (Comando Militar do Sudeste).
An excerpt of the speech was published on the Brazilian podcast “Roteirices” and has been circulating in soldiers’ WhatsApp groups since last week.
At a meeting with officers of the Southeast Military Command on January 18, Paiva stated: “Unfortunately, it was the result that most of us didn’t want, but it happened”. At the same time, he emphasized that there had been no fraud in counting the votes. In the recording, the general can be heard asking that no one record the conversation.
To date, only those parts of his speech have become known in which he calls for the election results and the new government to be recognized: “It doesn’t matter who is in command. We will carry out the mission in the same way”.
Three days after the speech, Lula installed General Paiva as the new supreme commander of the armed forces. The president fired his predecessor, Júlio César Arruda, after the storming of the government district. According to the Washington Post, Arruda had arrests explicitly prevented.
According to media reports, Paiva called Defense Minister José Múcio on Tuesday and emphasized that the content of the audio recording should not be taken out of context. He said it was about starting talks with officers with the aim of pacifying political conflicts in the barracks. He wanted to emphasize that no irregularities could be found in the elections and that the election results should be recognized. At no time did he want to insult the President.
The general expressed concern to Múcio about the impact of the incident, which he described as “friendly fire”. According to the daily Estadão, the army chief has good contacts with the government palace and is close to Vice President Geraldo Alckmin. Accordingly, there is no intention of dismissing him, as this would amount to another political crisis.
Lula’s unnamed advisers told the newspaper that the government will have more work than expected “to get closer to the armed forces”. But even with problems, Lula has no intention of “submitting to the guardianship of the military.”