SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A bicyclist rides by a billboard with a vandalized image of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro reading, "thank you, president for your efforts and funding to combat Covid-19" in Carpina, Pernambuco on March 27, 2021. (Photo: Leo Malafaia/AFP via Getty Images)
'Major Political Crisis' in Brazil as Military Chiefs Quit Amid Bolsonaro Purge of Top Ministers
A leading opposition figure said the country "can't overcome" Covid-19 with Bolsonaro, because "he is the crisis incarnate."
Mar 30, 2021
Brazil's political stability was in doubt Tuesday after the heads of all three military branches resigned following President Jair Bolsonaro's dismissal of his defense minister, one of six Cabinet officials who have recently left or been forced out of an administration whose popularity has plummeted amid soaring Covid-19 deaths in South America's largest nation.
"We must save Brazil from Covid-19. Brazil will not withstand it if this man continues to govern in this way."
-- Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,
presidential candidate
Folha de Sao Paulo reports Gen. Edson Leal Pujol, Adm. Ilques Barbosa, and Lt.-Brig. Antonio Carlos Bermudez--respectively commanders of the army, navy, and air force--resigned a day after Bolsonaro fired Defense Minister Gen. Fernando Azevedo e Silva.
The Guardian, citing local reporting, said Bolsonaro demanded Pujol's dismissal because the general resisted the far-right president's efforts to politicize the military. Bolsonaro is an open admirer of Brazil's former U.S.-backed military dictatorship--under which tens of thousands of people were tortured, murdered, and disappeared--and has praised a leading military torturer from that period as a "national hero."
Pujol had also criticized Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which according to Johns Hopkins University has claimed nearly 314,000 lives in Brazil, the world's second-highest death toll after the United States.
Ernesto Araujo, Bolsonaro's erstwhile foreign minister, also resigned Monday. The far-right diplomat--known for his fondness for former U.S. President Donald Trump and his disparagement of China--had increasingly alarmed progressives and much of the international community by denying the climate crisis and attacking reproductive and other human rights.
Under Bolsonaro and Araujo, the international standing of Brazil--which, since the restoration of democracy, has been widely viewed as a "soft power superpower"--has deteriorated dramatically.
The BBC reports Bolsonaro has replaced the six departed Cabinet ministers with people linked to a coalition of right-wing parties that support the president in Congress.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, decribed the complex and still-developing situation as a "major political crisis" for the country.
Bolsonaro--often called "Trump of the Tropics" for his political and philosophical closeness with the former U.S. president--has dismissed Covid-19 as a "little flu," and has refused to follow or promote mask-wearing, quarantine measures, and social distancing, despite having contracted the virus last year. He has also encouraged large gatherings and disparaged vaccines.
Last week, Bolsonaro lied on national television about his actions--or lack thereof--to control the pandemic on a day health authorities recorded 3,158 Covid-19 deaths across the country. Calls for the impeachment of the embattled president over his handling of the pandemic have grown louder in recent months.
"We can't overcome this crisis with Bolsonaro, he is the crisis incarnate," tweeted Gleisi Hoffman, a federal deputy from Parana state and president of the Workers' Party (PT), the main opposition party. "There is no doubt that this is a crime against life and against public health," she added.
"There is no doubt that this is a crime against life and against public health."
--Gleisi Hoffman,
Workers' Party
With presidential elections looming in 2022, Bolsonaro also faces the threat of a challenge from Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the former president and PT leader whose political rights were restored earlier this month after a Supreme Court justice annulled several criminal convictions related to the wide-ranging Car Wash corruption scandal.
Da Silva, popularly known as "Lula," is widely viewed as a favorite to wrest the presidency from the flagging Bolsonaro. At a rally earlier this month, da Silva said that Brazil "is disorganized and falling apart because it has no government."
The former president had even stronger words for the Bolsonaro administration after Brazil passed the grim milestone of 300,000 Covid-19 deaths last week, calling the coronavirus pandemic "the biggest genocide in our history."
"We must save Brazil from Covid-19," argued da Silva. "Brazil will not withstand it if this man continues to govern in this way."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
brazilcoronavirusglenn greenwaldhuman rightsjair bolsonaroluiz inacio lula da silvapublic healthsouth americatrumpism
Brazil's political stability was in doubt Tuesday after the heads of all three military branches resigned following President Jair Bolsonaro's dismissal of his defense minister, one of six Cabinet officials who have recently left or been forced out of an administration whose popularity has plummeted amid soaring Covid-19 deaths in South America's largest nation.
"We must save Brazil from Covid-19. Brazil will not withstand it if this man continues to govern in this way."
-- Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,
presidential candidate
Folha de Sao Paulo reports Gen. Edson Leal Pujol, Adm. Ilques Barbosa, and Lt.-Brig. Antonio Carlos Bermudez--respectively commanders of the army, navy, and air force--resigned a day after Bolsonaro fired Defense Minister Gen. Fernando Azevedo e Silva.
The Guardian, citing local reporting, said Bolsonaro demanded Pujol's dismissal because the general resisted the far-right president's efforts to politicize the military. Bolsonaro is an open admirer of Brazil's former U.S.-backed military dictatorship--under which tens of thousands of people were tortured, murdered, and disappeared--and has praised a leading military torturer from that period as a "national hero."
Pujol had also criticized Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which according to Johns Hopkins University has claimed nearly 314,000 lives in Brazil, the world's second-highest death toll after the United States.
Ernesto Araujo, Bolsonaro's erstwhile foreign minister, also resigned Monday. The far-right diplomat--known for his fondness for former U.S. President Donald Trump and his disparagement of China--had increasingly alarmed progressives and much of the international community by denying the climate crisis and attacking reproductive and other human rights.
Under Bolsonaro and Araujo, the international standing of Brazil--which, since the restoration of democracy, has been widely viewed as a "soft power superpower"--has deteriorated dramatically.
The BBC reports Bolsonaro has replaced the six departed Cabinet ministers with people linked to a coalition of right-wing parties that support the president in Congress.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, decribed the complex and still-developing situation as a "major political crisis" for the country.
Bolsonaro--often called "Trump of the Tropics" for his political and philosophical closeness with the former U.S. president--has dismissed Covid-19 as a "little flu," and has refused to follow or promote mask-wearing, quarantine measures, and social distancing, despite having contracted the virus last year. He has also encouraged large gatherings and disparaged vaccines.
Last week, Bolsonaro lied on national television about his actions--or lack thereof--to control the pandemic on a day health authorities recorded 3,158 Covid-19 deaths across the country. Calls for the impeachment of the embattled president over his handling of the pandemic have grown louder in recent months.
"We can't overcome this crisis with Bolsonaro, he is the crisis incarnate," tweeted Gleisi Hoffman, a federal deputy from Parana state and president of the Workers' Party (PT), the main opposition party. "There is no doubt that this is a crime against life and against public health," she added.
"There is no doubt that this is a crime against life and against public health."
--Gleisi Hoffman,
Workers' Party
With presidential elections looming in 2022, Bolsonaro also faces the threat of a challenge from Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the former president and PT leader whose political rights were restored earlier this month after a Supreme Court justice annulled several criminal convictions related to the wide-ranging Car Wash corruption scandal.
Da Silva, popularly known as "Lula," is widely viewed as a favorite to wrest the presidency from the flagging Bolsonaro. At a rally earlier this month, da Silva said that Brazil "is disorganized and falling apart because it has no government."
The former president had even stronger words for the Bolsonaro administration after Brazil passed the grim milestone of 300,000 Covid-19 deaths last week, calling the coronavirus pandemic "the biggest genocide in our history."
"We must save Brazil from Covid-19," argued da Silva. "Brazil will not withstand it if this man continues to govern in this way."
Brazil's political stability was in doubt Tuesday after the heads of all three military branches resigned following President Jair Bolsonaro's dismissal of his defense minister, one of six Cabinet officials who have recently left or been forced out of an administration whose popularity has plummeted amid soaring Covid-19 deaths in South America's largest nation.
"We must save Brazil from Covid-19. Brazil will not withstand it if this man continues to govern in this way."
-- Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,
presidential candidate
Folha de Sao Paulo reports Gen. Edson Leal Pujol, Adm. Ilques Barbosa, and Lt.-Brig. Antonio Carlos Bermudez--respectively commanders of the army, navy, and air force--resigned a day after Bolsonaro fired Defense Minister Gen. Fernando Azevedo e Silva.
The Guardian, citing local reporting, said Bolsonaro demanded Pujol's dismissal because the general resisted the far-right president's efforts to politicize the military. Bolsonaro is an open admirer of Brazil's former U.S.-backed military dictatorship--under which tens of thousands of people were tortured, murdered, and disappeared--and has praised a leading military torturer from that period as a "national hero."
Pujol had also criticized Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which according to Johns Hopkins University has claimed nearly 314,000 lives in Brazil, the world's second-highest death toll after the United States.
Ernesto Araujo, Bolsonaro's erstwhile foreign minister, also resigned Monday. The far-right diplomat--known for his fondness for former U.S. President Donald Trump and his disparagement of China--had increasingly alarmed progressives and much of the international community by denying the climate crisis and attacking reproductive and other human rights.
Under Bolsonaro and Araujo, the international standing of Brazil--which, since the restoration of democracy, has been widely viewed as a "soft power superpower"--has deteriorated dramatically.
The BBC reports Bolsonaro has replaced the six departed Cabinet ministers with people linked to a coalition of right-wing parties that support the president in Congress.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, decribed the complex and still-developing situation as a "major political crisis" for the country.
Bolsonaro--often called "Trump of the Tropics" for his political and philosophical closeness with the former U.S. president--has dismissed Covid-19 as a "little flu," and has refused to follow or promote mask-wearing, quarantine measures, and social distancing, despite having contracted the virus last year. He has also encouraged large gatherings and disparaged vaccines.
Last week, Bolsonaro lied on national television about his actions--or lack thereof--to control the pandemic on a day health authorities recorded 3,158 Covid-19 deaths across the country. Calls for the impeachment of the embattled president over his handling of the pandemic have grown louder in recent months.
"We can't overcome this crisis with Bolsonaro, he is the crisis incarnate," tweeted Gleisi Hoffman, a federal deputy from Parana state and president of the Workers' Party (PT), the main opposition party. "There is no doubt that this is a crime against life and against public health," she added.
"There is no doubt that this is a crime against life and against public health."
--Gleisi Hoffman,
Workers' Party
With presidential elections looming in 2022, Bolsonaro also faces the threat of a challenge from Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the former president and PT leader whose political rights were restored earlier this month after a Supreme Court justice annulled several criminal convictions related to the wide-ranging Car Wash corruption scandal.
Da Silva, popularly known as "Lula," is widely viewed as a favorite to wrest the presidency from the flagging Bolsonaro. At a rally earlier this month, da Silva said that Brazil "is disorganized and falling apart because it has no government."
The former president had even stronger words for the Bolsonaro administration after Brazil passed the grim milestone of 300,000 Covid-19 deaths last week, calling the coronavirus pandemic "the biggest genocide in our history."
"We must save Brazil from Covid-19," argued da Silva. "Brazil will not withstand it if this man continues to govern in this way."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.